A  "Vendue"  or  Country  Auction  in  the  Forties 


Quest 

of  f fie 

Colonial 


Rjpberfand 
61iz,eJ3eth 
Shackleion 


Illustrated  wftti  ma-ny 
photographs  eoidwrth 

decorations  by 
Heirry  Fenn 


New  York 


The  Century  Company 

t921 


4 


Copyright,  1907,  by 
THE  CENTURY  Co. 

Copyright,  1906,  by 
THE  CURTIS  PUBLISHING  Co. 


4_r 


Published  October,  iqffj 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PACK 

i    MAKING  A  BEGINNING 3 

ii   FEELING  OUR  WAY 22 

in   THE  FINDING  OF  OLD-TIME  HOUSES    ....     50 

iv  ALTERING  THE  HOUSE .     .     67 

v   SOME  EARLY  ACQUISITIONS 81 

vi   THE  COUNTRY  AUCTION 100 

vn   ON  RAMBLING  DRIVING  TRIPS 118 

vin   THE  FIELD  IN  NEW  YORK  AND  VICINITY     .     .141 
ix   THE  FIELD  IN  PHILADELPHIA  AND  VICINITY     .  167 

x   IN  VIRGINIA  AND  DELAWARE 183 

xi    IN  MASSACHUSETTS  AND  CONNECTICUT     .     .     .  203 

xii   THE  EASTERN  SHORE 227 

xin   BUYING  APPARENT  WRECKS 252 

xiv   REPAIRING  AND  POLISHING  AT  HOME  .     .     .     .277 

xv   IN  THE  DINING-ROOM 298 

xvi   IN  THE  ROOM  OF  THE  GREAT  FIREPLACE     .     .315 

xvii   THE  ROOM  IN  YELLOW 333 

xvni   THE  OUTFITTING  OF  A  GUEST  ROOM  .     .     .     .354 


506* 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

xix   MAKESHIFTS 370 

xx   FAKES  :  How  TO  RECOGNIZE  AND  AVOID  THEM,  380 

xxi   FINDS  IN  UNEXPECTED  PLACES 399 

xxn   THE  END  OF  IT  ALL 414 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


A  "  Vendue  "  or  Country  Auction  in  the  Forties      .     .     .    Frontispiece 

I  PAGE 

Candlesticks  and  Snuffers 5 

Brass  Andirons 16 

Typical  Legs  and  Feet  of  Important  Styles .     26 

Chippendale  Chairs .29 

Sheraton  Chairs 33 

Heppelwhite  Chairs 38 

Empire  Chairs .....41 

"  The  single  street  of  the  attenuated  town  " 53 

"  Facing  out  toward  the  ancient  sign  was  a  large,  square-front,  red- 
brick building,  stately  but  desolate.  ...  In  the  middle  front, 
beneath  a  charming  beehive  window,  was  a  portico,  stone- 
floored,  with  four  white  columns  rising  to  its  little  roof  "  .  .  60 

Heavily  Underbraced  Chairs,  known  to  be  late  Seventeenth  Century  69 

The  Hall     .     .     .     .     .     .''„"„••».    .  !/*;  .*.-;  v  <;/ .  :•*     ...  84 

Old  Mahogany  Mirrors 87 

Eighteenth  Century  "  Bonnet-top  "  Clocks 94 

Fire-screen,  Mirror,  and  Chippendale  Arm-chairs,  sold  at  a  country 

auction 108 

A  Sheraton  Desk,  closed  and  open  ;  bought  at  a  country  auction  for 
eight  dollars 113 

Charming  old  chairs  of  simple  design,  none  of  which  is  of  mahogany  .  124 
"The  sight  of  chairs  upon  a  porch."  Banister-back  and  Windsors,  131 
Tea  and  Antiques 146 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

"That  happy  find  —  a  'shabby-shop'  !"        146 

In  the  Village  of  the  Furniture  Census 155 

Pennsylvania  High-boy  and  Chest-on-chest 173 

The  Empire  Sofa,  with  Winged-claw  Feet,  and  carefully  graduated 
Acanthus  Carvings.  It  is  eight  feet  long  and  has  unusually 
graceful  curves  in  the  arms  and  back  180 

Sheraton  Sideboard,  showing  knife-boxes  in  place 189 

Heppelwhite  Furniture,  from  Virginia 197 

Two  Fine  Chippendale  Designs 206 

Old  New  England  Pieces,  showing  "  Willow  "  Brasses  and  Carved 

"  Rays  of  the  Sun  " 217 

Empire  Sideboards,  with  Pillars  and  Claw  Feet 231 

Old  Mahogany  Tables 242 

Heppelwhite  Low-boy  and  a  Heppelwhite  Fireside  Chair  Restored 

from  Wreck        260 

Windsor  Chairs 267 

Empire  Book  Case,  Unrestored,  of  about  1810,  with  Rosette  Brasses 

and  Claw  Feet,  and  Glass  in  Latticed  Design 282 

A  chair  made  nearly  a  hundred  years  ago 288 

Old  banister-back,  150  years  old 288 

Slat-back  armchair  of  about  1780 288 

"A  little  Lowestoft,  a  little  Wedgwood,  a  little  silver-lustre,  a  little 

old  Sevres  " 301 

The  Dining-room ;  with  perfect  example  of  round  Sheraton  dining- 

table,  and  the  Bethlehem  corner-cupboard 309 

"That  room  of  spacious  coziness,  to  which  distinction  is  given  by 

the  eight-foot  fireplace  " 320 

A  slant-top  secretary  of  about  1 770.    The  claw-and-ball  feet  are  short 

and  heavy,  as  they  should  be  on  so  heavy  a  piece  of  furniture,  327 

viii 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

The  Room  in  Yellow 342 

A  Chair  owned  by  Anthony  Wayne :  a  Chippendale  of  faultless  pro- 
portions     346 

An  Open-work  Brass  Fender,  Eighteenth  Century ;  found  in  South 

Carolina,  thrown  away,  under  a  porch 346 

The  Heppelwhite  Four-poster,  draped  and  stripped,  showing  how 

the  metal  bed  is  used 357 

"  An  old  black-fronted  Franklin,  brass-banded  and  brass-knobbed,"  363 
A  china  cupboard,  or  "beaufait,"  built  in  the  wainscoting  .  .  .  367 
The  Aaron  Burr  room,  showing  old  wall-paper  at  the  right  .  .  .  367 
"When  all  was  done,  it  looked  like  a  simple  fireplace  "  .  .  .  .  374 
Empire  Console,  bought  in  1907,  in  New  Jersey,  for  one  dollar  .  383 

Low-boy  of  1750,  with  Cabriole  Legs  and  Original  Brasses,  from  a 

cellar  in  Connecticut 383 

Little  Tables  of  Ancient  Make 393 

An  eighteenth-century,  brick-paved,  wainscoted  hall,  showing  a 

Windsor  chair  with  a  desk  arm .  409 

"  Crosswise  on  the  wagon  was  an  ancient  claw-foot  sofa  "      ...  409 


The  Quest  of  the  Colonial 


The  Quest  of  the  Colonial 


CHAPTER  I 

MAKING  A  BEGINNING 

WITH  ourselves,  the  kettle  began  it!     Or 
was  it  the  first  pair  of  candlesticks !     Or 
the  Shaker  chair !  Rather,  it  would  seem, 
on  looking  back  upon  the  gradual  inception  of  the 
plan,  that  it  was  the  combined  influence  of  the  chair 
and  the  candlesticks  and  the  kettle. 

The  kettle,  a  charming  ebony-handled  thing,  squat, 
round,  of  captivating  curves,  the  body  of  it  made  in 
two  parts  but  with  such  skill  that  the  brazed  edge 
almost  defies  detection  and  there  is  thus  the  air  of 

Is! 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

having  been  hammered  out  of  a  single  sheet,  came 
ancestrally,  having  crossed  the  ocean  many  decades 
ago. 

The  candlesticks  caught  the  eye,  one  day,  by  a 
felicitous  chance,  on  the  window-ledge  of  a  shop 
prosaically  devoted  to  the  buying  and  selling  of 
scrap  metal.  They  are  nine  and  a  quarter  inches 
high  and  of  excellent  design.  Indeed,  after  all 
these  following  years  of  quest  and  success,  they 
stand  honorably  among  our  treasured  acquisitions. 
Very  dirty  they  were,  those  brasses,  in  that  old-metal 
window,  and  the  fragments  of  tallow  dip  candles 
were  green  in  their  sockets.  They  were  indubitably 
old  as  well  as  graceful,  and  they  were  offered  and 
purchased  at  the  price  of  twenty  cents  apiece.  To 
be  sure,  they  needed  burnishing,  but  that  was  but  a 
small  matter. 

The  chair  was  an  acquisition  still  more  delightful 
in  the  course  of  its  coming.  For  there  was  a  Shaker 
settlement  near  the  city  where  we  used  to  live,  and 
it  was  a  pleasure  to  visit  there,  so  hospitable  were 
the  kindly  aged  folk,  and  amid  such  an  aroma  of 
sweetness  did  they  lead  their  celibate  lives. 

We  wondered  at  times,  finding  them  so  gently 
cordial  to  us,  when  we  knew  that  the  cold  text  of 
their  religion  taught  them  to  be  distrustful  of  people 

[4] 


Candlesticks  and  Sniffers 

i  Brass  candlesticks;  Delaware.  2  Bought  for  ten  cents;  Sheffield  plate.  3  Sheffield; 
classic  pillar.  4  Sheffield;  rococo.  5  Sheffield  pair;  concave  panels.  6  Brass;  old  French. 
7  The  first  acquisition ;  from  junk-shop  window.  8  Bedroom  candlestick.  9  Old  snuffers. 
10  From  old  warship. 


MAKING  A  BEGINNING 

of  the  outside  world  and  to  hold  but  necessary  com- 
munication with  them,  whether  they  hoped  to  draw 
us  in  as  proselytes  for  their  community,  so  sorely  in 
need  of  younger  blood;  but  if  they  ever  cherished 
the  hope  that  we  should  find  inward  and  spiritual 
grace  among  them  they  assuredly  gave  no  outward 
and  visible  sign  that  such  was  their  thought.  They 
were  hospitable,  in  a  simple,  old-fashioned  way,  and 
we  were  welcome  to  enter  their  doors,  to  walk  through 
their  halls,  with  polished  floors,  covered  with  long 
strips  of  rag  carpeting,  and  with  everywhere  an  odor 
of  herbs  and  of  sanctity;  we  were  welcome  at  their 
meals  of  bread  and  butter,  and  fried  chicken,  and 
jelly  of  apple  and  sauce  of  pear,  when,  in  silence, 
the  men  ate  at  a  long  table  at  one  side  of  the  great 
dining-room  and  the  women,  as  silent,  at  the  other. 
Back  to  back  they  sat,  with  the  broad  space  between ; 
and  one  standing  in  the  middle  would  have  seen,  on 
the  one  hand,  a  line  of  men's  heads,  bent  over  the  ta- 
ble, a  row  of  blue  coats,  with  tails  carefully  parted 
on  either  side  of  the  low-backed  chairs,  and,  on  the 
other  side,  a  row  of  little  muslin  caps,  and  plain 
tippets  and  dresses  of  calico. 

These  people,  self  set  apart  from  the  world, 
showed  us  the  inside  corners  of  their  warm  hearts; 
and  it  seems,  looking  back  upon  it,  as  if  the  taste  for 

[7] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

the  quaint  and  the  old-fashioned,  even  then  strong 
within  us,  was  strengthened  by  knowing  these  folk, 
who  seemed  like  veritable  bits  out  of  the  past.  They 
themselves  realized  that  there  was  something  in  ac- 
cord between  us,  and  one  of  the  oldest  of  the  Sisters 
gave  us  her  own  particular  chair  which  had  been 
made  specially  for  her,  in  her  youth,  when  she  taught 
sewing  to  the  children  whom  they  then  had  in  their 
school. 

It  is  a  slender,  narrow  rocker,  with  slim,  high 
back;  impossible  to  rock,  indeed,  for  the  dear  old 
lady  had  found  it  liable  to  tip  over  backward,  or  to 
threaten  to  tip,  and  so  had  had  one  of  the  Brothers 
saw  off  the  rockers  short  and  fasten  on  the  stubby 
ends  prohibitive  bits  of  cork.  The  chair,  charm- 
ingly proportioned,  with  low-set  arms,  has  nothing 
about  it  that  is  elaborate;  the  code  of  Shakerism  al- 
lows nothing  of  display;  but  it  is  most  carefully 
made,  is  splint-bottomed,  with  a  curious  variety  of 
Roman-key  design,  and  the  ends  of  the  arms  and  the 
tops  of  the  side  pieces  end  in  delicately  ovaled 
knobs. 

The  chair  stands  in  a  corner  of  our  guest-room, 
holding  in  kindly  remembrance  the  kindly  folk,  hun- 
dreds of  miles  from  where  we  now  are,  by  whom, 
long  ago,  we  were  made  welcome  guests. 

[8] 


MAKING  A  BEGINNING 

And  so,  from  the  possession  of  these  grew  the  idea 
of  outfitting  our  home  with  the  charming  and  stately 
furniture  of  the  past,  with  the  mahogany  and  the 
walnut,  the  brass  and  the  china,  of  the  olden  time. 
Even  with  this  beginning,  the  idea  was  slowly 
adopted,  with  much  of  hesitating  dubiety  as  to  the 
possibility  of  it  all.  For,  until  we  had  well  begun, 
the  plan  seemed  so  impractical,  so  impracticable ! 

This  sense  of  the  ultimate  futility  of  the  attempt, 
even  after  a  few  delightful  acquisitions,  was  strong 
within  us  because  of  our  living  in  a  city  of  the  Mid- 
dle West,  where  old-fashioned  furniture  is,  necessa- 
rily, far  less  common  than  in  the  Eastern  States,  but 
even  had  we  then  lived  in  the  East  there  would  have 
been  little  encouragement  shown  us.  To  see  the 
charming  things  of  long  ago  is  offered  with  generous 
freedom,  alike  in  the  superb  collections  of  public  or- 
ganizations and  in  the  fine  old  Colonial  mansions,  in 
various  States,  given  into  the  charge  of  patriotic  so- 
cieties and  filled  by  them  with  the  furniture  of  the 
past.  But  the  line  between  seeing  and  acquiring  is 
clearly  drawn.  Those  who  show  with  opulent  free- 
dom will  only  suggest,  for  purchasing,  to  go  directly 
and  prosaically  to  the  shops  where  things  with  claim 
to  age  are  sold. 

But  it  was  no  part  of  our  scheme  to  obtain  our 

[9] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

treasure  prosaically  or  from  sources  open  to  any  de- 
gree of  doubt.  From  the  very  first  we  experienced, 
with  the  joy  of  having,  the  concomitant  joy  of  get- 
ting. With  our  earliest  acquisitions,  the  Shaker 
chair,  the  candlesticks  and  the  kettle,  there  was  the 
tang  of  some  delightful  association  and  the  charm  of 
the  personal  touch,  and  we  were  resolved,  having  de- 
lightfully begun,  not  to  be  content  with  methods 
and  results  less  interesting. 

And  hete,  first,  is  the  fact  which,  little  appre- 
ciated, lies  at  the  bottom  of  it  all.  There  is,  as  yet, 
no  essential  scantiness  of  supply  of  the  delightful 
and  desirable  old!  There  is  just  enough  of  scanti- 
ness to  render  the  quest  alluring. 

And  it  would  be  strange  if  there  were  any  prohibi- 
tive scantiness.  A  century  ago  there  were  in  exis- 
tence millions  of  pieces  of  furniture  of  the  shapes 
that  are  now  held  in  admiration.  Things  that  are 
now  the  possessions  of  a  few  were  then  the  common 
possession  of  all.  In  one  single  year,  near  the  open- 
ing of  the  century  just  past,  the  shop  of  a  single 
Connecticut  maker  turned  out  the  movements  for 
three  thousand  tall  clocks.  Other  things  were  made 
in  numbers  proportionate — tables,  chairs,  bureaus, 
andirons,  candlesticks.  So  many  were  the  mechan- 
ics engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  furniture,  that  the 

[10] 


MAKING  A  BEGINNING 

trade  came  to  be  in  some  degree  specialized,  and 
there  were  men  engaged  in  nothing  but  the  construc- 
tion of  Windsor  chairs ! 

All  of  these  millions  of  articles  were  not  de- 
stroyed, all  were  not  worn  out  and  thrown  away  or 
turned  over  to  museums.  An  enormous  total  is  still 
in  existence ;  great  numbers  of  pieces  may  be  sought 
out  and  secured  by  the  collector  of  to-day. 

Realizing  this— and  how  few  realize  it!— it  is  but 
a  matter  of  learning  where  to  seek  with  the  greatest 
prospect  of  finding. 

Although  it  is  in  the  East  that  far  the  greatest 
number  remain  in  existence,  we  found  that  in  the 
Middle  West  there  came  many  a  fine  specimen  by 
ox-cart  from  Connecticut  to  the  shores  of  Lake  Erie ; 
many  were  flat-boated  down  the  Ohio  in  the  early 
days  of  settlement  or  trailed  through  Cumberland 
Gap  by  the  pioneers  of  Kentucky;  and,  farther 
South,  many  a  piece  went  westward  from  the  Caro- 
linas,  or,  entering  the  Mississippi,  remained  at  some 
point  along  the  river's  banks.  Although  the  bulk 
of  furniture  remained  in  Boston,  New  York,  Phila- 
delphia, in  Massachusetts,  Pennsylvania,  Virginia, 
or  elsewhere  near  the  coast,  the  early  folk  of  Cleve- 
land and  Louisville  and  St.  Louis,  of  Pittsburg,  Cin- 
cinnati and  New  Orleans,  were  not  without  old 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

treasures.  In  what  was  deemed  the  backwoods 
there  were  houses  of  log  or  hewed  timber  in  which 
family  silver  alternated  with  gourds,  and  in  which 
fine  mahogany  stood  on  puncheon  floors.  And,  in 
the  West  as  in  the  East,  during  the  period  that  the 
taste  prevailed— the  taste  which  has  so  strongly  re- 
vived—additional furniture  was  made,  on  the  grace- 
ful lines  of  the  old,  by  local  cabinet-makers.  And 
outside  of  the  known  lines  of  travel  and  of  settle- 
ment, many  a  piece  of  fine  design  has  wandered  er- 
ratically to  some  most  unexpected  spot  and  is  wait- 
ing to  be  discovered  and  appropriated. 

Theoretically,  there  is  no  reason,  except  the  pow- 
erful one  that  the  old  was  all  hand-made,  why  the 
furniture  of  to-day  is  not  fully  as  beautiful  as  that 
of  the  past.  But  it  is  not,  any  more  than  the 
churches  of  to-day  equal  the  ancient  cathedrals. 
In  such  cases  it  is  matter  of  fact,  not  of  theory.  The 
graceful  lines  and  proportions,  in  furniture,  are 
mainly  of  a  bygone  era,  save  in  the  cases  of  success- 
ful imitation.  And,  in  addition  to  the  actual  grace, 
the  actual  beauty,  there  is  the  charm  of  association 
with  an  interesting  past.  The  tender  grace  of  a  day 
that  is  dead  lingers  about  the  stately  fireirons  of  the 
time  of  Washington  or  the  beautiful  chair  which  was 
used  in  a  house  of  Revolutionary  fame.  The  charm 
once  felt,  it  never  disappears. 


MAKING  A  BEGINNING 

There  are  so  many  directions  in  which  one  may 
profitably  go,  in  the  search  of  the  old,  that  it  must 
needs  be  matter  for  needful  planning.  By  a  judi- 
cious distribution  of  vacation  trips  many  a  point  can 
be  touched.  By  those  of  greater  leisure  there  can  be 
any  degree  of  expeditionary  meanderings.  Often  a 
business  trip  takes  one  to  a  place  where  a  longed-for 
treasure  may  be  secured. 

The  quest  will  be  likely  to  last  over  years.  But 
it  is  such  an  enjoyable  quest,  in  its  experiences  as 
well  as  in  its  rewards,  that  one  does  not  wish  it  to  be 
shorter.  Old-time  acquisitions  can  never  be  very 
greatly  prized  if,  with  a  full  pocketbook,  a  visit  is 
made  to  a  dealer  and  instructions  given  to  outfit  the 
house.  It  is  the  personal  touch  which  comes  from 
the  personal  finding,  it  is  the  definite  associa- 
tion, it  is  the  knowledge  that  one  knows  precisely 
what,  in  each  case,  one  is  getting,  it  is  the  personal 
adventure,  and  oftentimes  the  personal  history,  that 
give  value,  in  addition  to  the  value  the  find  has  in- 
trinsically. 

With  patience  and  attention,  with  watchfulness 
and  an  ever-ready  preparedness  to  take  advantage 
when  opportunity  offers,  the  search  for  the  furni- 
ture of  our  forefathers  is  as  easy  as  it  is  full  of  de- 
light and  of  surprises.  "•> 

But,  first,  some  misconceptions  must  be  put  away. 

[13] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

In  America  no  one,  no  matter  how  wealthy,  can  fill 
his  house  with  genuine  pieces  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, for  the  museums  and  a  few  old  families  have 
almost  every  piece.  Few,  no  matter  how  wealthy, 
can  fill  their  houses  with  pieces  of  a  period  anterior 
to  the  Revolution.  And  it  is  because  of  these  facts, 
which  are  well  known,  that  the  gathering  of  furni- 
ture of  the  olden  time  is  looked  upon  as  an  insuper- 
able task. 

Fortunately,  it  was  not  until  more  than  a  quarter 
of  a  century  after  the  close  of  the  Revolution  that 
the  commonizing  change  in  the  making  of  furniture 
came.  The  triumph  of  the  styles  of  Heppelwhite 
and  of  Sheraton  came  late  in  the  eighteenth  century. 
The  triumphant  beauty  of  the  early  Empire  came, 
as  the  name  denotes,  early  in  the  nineteenth. 

But,  in  spite  of  this,  the  term  "Colonial"  is  at- 
tached to  all  of  the  furniture  of  the  early  times  and 
the  early  shapes.  It  has  come  to  be  so  generally  em- 
ployed, and  is  a  term  in  itself  so  suggestive  and  so 
sonorous,  that  it  would  be  invidious  indeed  to  strive 
to  limit  its  use  with  chilly  literalness. 

Nor  must  all  of  "Colonial  furniture"  needs  be  of 
mahogany.  There  is  no  such  narrowing  limitation. 
Mahogany  is  the  most  beautiful  of  all  wood  for  this 
purpose,  yet  many  of  the  finest  old  shapes  are  of 

[HI 


Brass  Andirons 

i  Found  under  a  porch  in  South  Carolina.  2  Rights  and  lefts;  made  for  the  inn  fireplace 
in  1825  3  The  oldest  pair ;  full  of  wasps  when  found.  4  The  acorn-top  andirons  from  blen- 
nerhassett  Island.  5  From  near  the  Connecticut  line.  6  From  an  old  house  in  Tallahassee. 


MAKING  A  BEGINNING 

walnut  or  hickory  or  cherry  or  oak  or  ash.  The 
greater  part  of  the  finest  old  French  furniture,  too, 
was  not  of  mahogany. 

With  the  furniture  of  the  past  there  should  go  the 
brass  and  the  iron,  the  silver  and  the  pewter,  of  the 
corresponding  time.  Certain  prints  and  silver  and 
porcelain  from  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic,  if  they 
harmonize  in  design  and  period,  are  acquisitions.  In 
short,  in  the  gathering  of  "Colonial  furniture,"  of 
furniture  of  the  past,  think  of  no  restriction  but  that 
of  unbeautiful  shape,  no  limitation  but  that  of  unat- 
tractiveness.  One  thing  after  another  should  be  so 
chosen  as  to  be  a  lesson  in  good  taste. 

And  so,  with  these  preliminary  suggestions  as  to 
the  limitations  which  broaden  the  possibilities  of  the 
quest,  we  shall  return  to  the  narrative  of  our  own 
getting,  as  in  no  better  way  can  we  illustrate  the 
methods  and  the  potentialities. 

The  love  for  the  antique  grows  by  what  it  feeds 
on.  Deep  within  our  hearts  lay  that  love,  ready  for 
development  and  growth. 

And  Fate  was  very  complaisant  in  those  early 
days  of  our  gathering.  It  is  likely  enough  that,  had 
there  then  been  numerous  disappointments,  our  ar- 
dor would  have  been  chilled.  But,  as  encourage- 
ment at  the  commencement,  and  marking  the  ever- 

'[171 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

existent  possibility  of  finding  prizes  in  unexpected 
places,  we  secured  a  distinguished  pair  of  brass  and- 
irons at  a  place  where  it  would  have  been  deemed 
absolutely  impossible  to  get  them. 

That  impracticable  place  was  Blennerhassett  Is- 
land !  For  almost  every  particle  of  the  furnishings 
of  that  stately  mansion  which  made  the  island  fa- 
mous was  lost  in  the  fire  and  looting  which  followed 
the  failure  of  Burr  to  carve  for  himself,  out  of  the 
West,  an  empire  that  was  to  wax  strong  among  the 
nations  of  the  earth.  Now  but  the  barest  vestiges 
of  the  foundations  of  the  mansion  are  to  be  seen. 
And  as  for  the  furniture  and  the  smaller  belongings 
of  the  scholar  and  gentleman  who  cast  in  his  fortune 
with  the  would-be  Napoleon,  the  island  was  long 
ago  swept  clear  of  any  trace  of  them. 

And  yet,  when  we  went  there,  we  found  a  treasure 
out  of  the  past !  And  it  was  not  something  offered, 
by  an  island  resident,  as  having  belonged  to  Blen- 
nerhassett or  as  having  been  used  by  Burr. 

There  had  been  a  heavy  flood  in  the  Ohio ;  one  of 
those  floods  which  come  every  dozen  years  or  so, 
when  the  stream  swells  to  mighty  volume  and  over- 
flows vast  stretches  of  land  and  sweeps  away  fences 
and  houses  and  barns. 

In  walking  about  the  little  island,  with  a  man  who 

[18] 


MAKING  A  BEGINNING 

had  long  lived  there  and  who  was  well  acquainted 
with  the  outlines  of  the  great,  semi-circular  house, 
with  the  site  of  the  old-time  landing  place,  with  the 
curious  local  history,  he  remarked  that  Blennerhas- 
sett  had  not  chosen  most  wisely  from  the  standpoint 
of  one  who  wished  to  use  the  island  for  residence 
purposes  only,  because,  rich  as  it  is  as  farm  land,  and 
superbly  located  as  it  is  in  the  midst  of  the  bending 
stream,  it  becomes  periodically  untenable. 

Then,  thus  reminded,  he  went  on  to  tell  how, 
driven  to  the  mainland  by  the  last  flood,  he  watched 
the  water's  steady  rise  during  the  day,  and  next 
morning,  looking  across  at  his  submerged  island  from 
his  West  Virginia  refuge,  he  saw  that  a  dwelling- 
house  had  stranded  there.  In  the  course  of  the  day 
he  was  able,  with  a  companion,  to  row  over  to  it. 
No  one  was  within.  But  the  furniture  was  in  place, 
just  as  the  fleeing  family  had  left  it;  and  the  two 
men  put  into  their  boat  this  pair  of  acorn-top  and- 
irons, which  they  lifted  from  the  hearth,  and  a  little 
round-topped  hair  trunk  which  was  standing  in  a 
corner. 

Another  morning  came;  but  the  river  had  risen 
afresh  in  the  night,  and  had  picked  up  the  stranded 
house  and  carried  it  away.  They  opened  the  trunk, 
but  there  was  nothing  in  it  to  give  the  slightest  hint 

[19] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

as  to  where  the  house  had  floated  from.  It  might 
have  floated  a  hundred  miles  or  more.  A  mystery 
it  had  come,  and  had  but  touched  there  for  a  few 
hours  on  its  way  to  the  oblivion  into  which  it  disap- 
peared. 

The  man,  although  impressed  by  the  strangeness 
of  it  all,  clearly  set  no  particular  value  on  what  he 
had  found;  his  "plunder,"  as  he  called  it.  He 
showed  the  andirons,  and  we  admired  them. 

"Should  n't  you  like  to  trade  those  for  a  ham- 
mock?' 

It  was  certainly  a  curious  thing  for  two  travelers 
to  have,  and,  in  truth,  it  was  an  odd  chance  that  it 
happened  to  be  in  our  possession  at  the  psychic  mo- 
ment. We  had  left  it  on  the  mainland  while  we 
rowed  over  to  the  island,  and  it  had  seen  a  summer's 
use. 

The  unexpectedness  of  a  hammock  appealed  to 
him. 

"Yes;  if  I  like  the  looks  of  it,"  he  said. 

He  liked  it,  and  the  precious  andirons  became 
ours. 

Now,  when  one  can  go  to  the  place  where,  a  cen- 
tury ago,  every  vestige  of  movable  interest  vanished, 
and  find  the  very  floods  work  in  his  behalf  to  carry 
to  his  feet  a  pair  of  brass  andirons,  with  a  strange 

[20] 


MAKING  A  BEGINNING 

association  of  romantic  Blennerhassett  and  a  haunt- 
ing history  full  of  possibilities — for  the  andirons 
are  of  a  design  such  as  those  which  came  across  the 
mountains  in  the  earliest  days  of  Western  settle- 
ment, and  the  house  which  held  them  came  floating 
out  of  vagueness  only  to  vanish  into  misty  vague- 
ness again — anything  is  possible. 

These  andirons  came  shortly  after  the  Shaker 
chair,  and  had  strong  influence  in  confirming  us  in 
the  thought  of  realizing  our  dream  of  charming  po- 
tentialities. 

Our  Lares  and  Penates  were  to  be  of  mahogany 
and  brass ! 


[21] 


CHAPTER  II 

FEELING  OUR  WAY 

VERY  early  in  the  quest  of  the  old,  one  comes 
to  realize  that  there  is  often  an  important 
difference  between  finding  a  prize  and  se- 
curing it.     Many  of  those  who  possess  old  furniture 
have  a  high  and  just  appreciation  of  it,  and  in  such 
cases  the  right-minded  collector  does  not  wish  to  get 
it.     But  there  are  other  owners,  who  neither  prize  a 
thing  themselves  nor  permit  it  to  pass  into  other 
hands. 

In  the  garret  of  one  of  the  oldest  houses  of  the 
Western  Reserve  we  discovered  an  old  grandfather's 
clock.  It  had  been  made  in  Connecticut;  it  had 
been  carried  to  the  shores  of  Lake  Erie  in  those  early 
days  when  the  wilderness  was  still  unbroken,  when 
the  pioneers  took  with  them  indispensable  furniture, 
household  supplies,  clothing,  shoes  for  every  mem- 

[22] 


FEELING  OUR  WAY 

her  of  the  family  for  years  to  come  and  for  children 
still  unborn.  And  here  the  clock  was,  after  years  of 
usefulness,  lying  flat  on  its  face  on  the  floor.  It  had 
lain  there,  said  the  owner,  indifferently,  for  thirty 
years,  waiting  to  be  repaired.  He  would  neither  re- 
pair it  nor  set  it  up,  nor  would  he  let  any  clock-lover 
obtain  it. 

And  so,  although  there  is  somewhat  of  whimsical- 
ity in  feeling  annoyance  because  a  man  does  as  he 
pleases  with  his  own,  we  none  the  less  felt  annoyed. 

It  was  not  long  after  this  experience  that  we  ob- 
tained, from  an  old  house  on  Long  Island,  the  tall 
grandfather's  clock  which  we  still  possess.  And  our 
difficulties  with  it  have  been  full  of  amusing  instruc- 
tion for  us. 

The  clock  is  of  good  shape  and  design,  it  is  of 
good  height,  full  seven  feet  and  five  inches,  and  the 
>p  is  of  that  charming  "broken-arch"  or  "bonnet- 
>p"  design  which  first  made  its  appearance  in  the 
furniture  of  Queen  Anne's  time,  and  was  not  much 
ised  before  1730. 

But  this  clock  does  not  date  back  so  far  as  that. 

ie  dial-plate  is  of  white  enamel,  and  this  alone,  to 
begin  with,  would  show  that  it  was  not  made  before 
the  latter  part  of  the  Revolution.  Before  that  the 
dials  were  of  metal;  of  silver-plate  or  of  brass. 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

There  are  other  indications  which  fix  the  date  at  not 
long  after  1790. 

There  is  neither  date  nor  the  name  of  the  maker, 
but  it  is  often  surprising,  in  fixing  the  age  of  furni- 
ture, how  much  can  be  determined  from  the  style 
and  the  ornamentation. 

The  design,  on  the  upper  part  of  the  dial-face  of 
this  clock,  of  an  eagle,  two  American  flags  and  two 
shields,  shows  that  it  was  not  made  before  the  eagle 
became  the  national  emblem. 

And  this  design  is  amusingly  worthy  of  examina- 
tion as  an  example  of  bucolic  heraldry.  The  shields 
are  held  out  on  the  ends  of  two  sticks,  giving  the  pre- 
cise effect  of  spades.  The  flags  are  a  trifle  nonde- 
script in  character.  The  colors  of  flags  and  spades 
are  soft  red  and  white  and  blue,  softened  still  more 
by  age.  But  the  eagle  is  brown — a  golden  eagle— 
and  with  outstretched  wings  is  perched,  not  on  some 
classic  pedestal,  but  on  the  ridge  of  a  barn!  The 
barn  is  tiny.  It  is  scarcely  half  the  size  of  the 
eagle  itself.  But  it  is  none  the  less,  unmistakably, 
a  plain  barn,  such  as  the  maker  of  the  design  must 
often  have  seen  large  birds  perched  upon.  The  entire 
effect,  although  it  can  scarcely  be  called  artistic,  is 
very  pleasing,  and  proves  at  least  an  independence 
of  thought  on  the  part  of  the  simple-hearted  maker. 

EH] 


Typical  Legs  and  Feet  of  Important  Styles 

i  A  cabriole  or  bandy  leg,  with  a  web  foot;  Chippendale  period.  2  A  cabriole  leg,  with 
claw-and-ball  foot ;  Chippendale.  3  The  tapering  inlaid  leg  used  by  Heppelwhite.  4  The 
slender  fluted  or  reeded  leg  typical  of  Sheraton.  5  The  winged-claw  foot  typical  of  the 
Empire  period.  6  The  snake-foot,  with  its  swelling  spread  at  the  end  ;  made  after  1740 


FEELING  OUR  WAY 

The  tall  cased-in  clock  stands  with  a  dignity  and 
simplicity  of  line  that  are  very  charming.  And  it 
cost  but  twelve  dollars,  which  is  very  little  for  an 
old,  brass-ornamented  grandfather's  clock. 

But  it  has  wooden  works !  And  among  the  mis- 
takes which  collectors  just  beginning  are  liable  to 
make,  the  getting  of  a  clock  with  wooden  works  is 
one. 

Not  but  that  wooden  works  have  some  degree 
of  special  merit.  They  seem,  indeed,  to  give  an  air 
of  greater  simplicity  and  age.  But,  although  this 
effect  is  right  enough  as  to  simplicity,  that  of  age  is 
quite  factitious.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  all  of  the  old- 
est tall  clocks  have  works  of  brass.  The  putting  in  of 
works  of  wood  came  through  an  enforced  simplicity 
of  life  resulting  from  the  Revolution.  Economy  of 
price  was  suited  to  the  hard  and  barren  years  of  the 
end  of  the  century: 

Clocks  of  this  kind  are  to  be  prized,  as  they  rep- 
resent an  unquestioned  Americanism.  Most  of 
them  were  made  in  Connecticut,  a  place  noted  for 
the  manufacture  of  other  small,  round,  wooden 
things  besides  cog-wheels  of  clocks,  and  the  one  we 
have  was  doubtless  carried  thence  across  the  Sound. 
But  their  disadvantage  lies  in  liability  to  get  out  of 
order,  and  in  the  difficulty  of  getting  them  repaired. 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

One  is  tempted  to  wish  for  the  reincarnation  of  that 
ancient  clockmakers5  guild,  of  nearly  three  hundred 
years  ago,  whose  members  were  authorized  to  seek 
out  and  confiscate  clocks,  as  the  old  charter  naively 
had  it,  "with  bad  and  deceitful  works."  Ask  a  mod- 
ern clockmaker  to  repair  wooden  works,  and  he  will 
shake  his  head,  with  a  smile.  "No  one  can  do  that 
nowadays !" 

Our  tall  clock  stopped  running,  after  a  house  mov- 
ing, and  nothing  would  coax  it  to  go.  It  was  ob- 
durate. No  one  could  be  found  who  could  over- 
come its  exasperating  inertia. 

Once  in  a  while  we  tried  to  fix  it  ourselves,  and  a 
kitchen  table  covered  with  wooden  wheels  that 
looked  like  pie-crust  markers  became  a  familiar 
sight.  We  vainly  tried  to  decide  upon  the  part  that 
failed.  We  vainly  made  easy  the  way  of  the  possi- 
ble transgressor  with  tallow  or  the  prized  panacea 
of  graphite.  Vainly  we  tickled  the  escapement  with 
quill  of  oil.  Long  it  stood,  silent  and  lifeless,  as  if 
worn  out  with  keeping  time.  But  at  length  we 
heard  of  a  queer  mechanical  genius  who  lived  soli- 
tary, on  a  solitary  farm,  some  miles  away. 

No  sooner  heard  of  than  we  drove  there  with  pen- 
dulum, weights  and  works.  We  found  him  living  in 
the  midst  of  a  medley  of  mechanical  contrivances. 

[28] 


Arm-chair  of  early  and  rare 
design 


Chair  with  jar-shaped  splat 
and  cabriole  legs 


Early  type,  wooden  seat 

4 
Back  with  simple,  fine  lines 

5 

Jar-shaped  splat,  with  urn ; 
spade  feet 

6 

A  good,  average  example  of 
Chippendale 


Chippendale  Chairs 


FEELING  OUR  WAY 

His  water  was  pumped,  his  cattle  were  fed,  his  wag- 
ons were  hitched,  his  clothes  were  hung  upon  the 
line,  his  doors  were  opened,  his  shingles  were  made, 
his  wood  was  sawed,  by  one  or  another  of  his  queer 
devices.  A  vastly  interesting  character,  he;  and  if 
the  getting  of  wooden  works  in  a  clock  could  but  as- 
sure the  resultant  finding  of  such  a  human  treasure, 
then  the  getting  of  wooden  works  would  be  the  thing 
advisable. 

To  him  the  fixing  of  the  wooden  works  was  easy. 
He  delighted  in  doing  what  no  one  else  could  do. 
And  the  old  clock  ticks  in  our  hall,  in  solemn  dig- 
nity, as  becomes  the  representative  of  exigent,  inex- 
orable, but  gravely  decorous  Time. 

No  one  can  gather  a  collection  without,  in  the  be- 
ginning, making  mistakes.  Now  and  then,  as  others 
do,  we  picked  up  the  wrong  thing,  and,  finding  it 
out  in  the  course  of  time,  discarded  it.  It  would 
be  difficult  to  name  any  line  of  acquisition  in  which 
greater  care  is  requisite.  Not  only  is  eternal  vigi- 
lance the  price  of  having  genuine  specimens  but  it 
must  be  a  vigilance  well  informed.  And  even 
though  the  pieces  in  a  collection  be  genuine,  there 
must  also  be,  to  enjoy  them  to  the  full,  some  knowl- 
edge of  styles  and  names  and  makes. 

There  are  no  names  in  more  common  use,  in  de- 

[3-1] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

scribing  styles  of  furniture,  than  those  of  Chippen- 
dale, Heppelwhite  and  Sheraton.  To  these  might 
be  added  numerous  others,  the  most  important  being 
Empire,  Adam  and  Jacobean. 

Chippendale  was  a  cabinet-maker  of  the  middle 
of  the  eighteenth  century.  He  published  a  book  of 
designs  of  furniture,  and  his  name  has  come  to  stand 
for  the  work  of  an  entire  school.  There  are  few  ar- 
ticles of  furniture  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  that 
were  made  in  his  own  shop,  but  other  workers  copied 
him  closely,  as  he  intended  them  to  do.  More  than 
four-score  cabinet-makers  of  London  are  known  to 
have  subscribed  for  his  book,  and  workers  in  Amer- 
ica also  eagerly  followed  his  style. 

He  was  a  man  of  forcefulness  and  originality.  He 
eschewed  inlay  and  veneer  and  depended  for  his 
effects  on  proportion,  strength  and  craftsmanship. 
The  typical  Chippendale  chair,  in  particular,  is  al- 
ways recognizable.  It  has  a  certain  bow-shaped  top, 
and  down  the  middle  of  the  back  runs  a  graceful  per- 
forated splat. 

There  is  a  wide  variety  of  shape  with  Chippendale 
furniture.  That  he  expected.  With  the  design  for  a 
certain  kind  of  a  chair  he  would  not  only  give  dimen- 
sions, and  rules  for  putting  together,  but  he  would 
show  differences  of  possible  detail,  so  that  the  cabi- 

[32] 


With  typical  space  above  the 
seat,  below  splat  and 

cross-bar 

A  back  view,  showing 
structure 


Sheraton  Chairs 

Typical  rectangular  back 
Beautiful  example.  The  three 
feathers  are  used  because 
the  Prince  of  Wales  was 
Regent  when  this  chair  was 
made 


With  graceful,  perforated 
balusters.     Cushion  hides 

space  above  seat 
With  wide  space  under  cross- 
bar 


FEELING  OUR  WAY 

net-maker  using  his  designs  could  present  them  all 
for  the  choice  of  the  customer  for  whom  the  work 
was  to  be  done.  Different  splats  were  shown,  and 
often  a  single  cut  would  present  one  leg  straight  and 
one  leg  cabriole,  one-half  of  a  chair  with  infoliated 
carving,  or  shell  ornament,  or  fretwork  design,  and 
the  other  half  without;  so  that  one  single  cut  might 
stand  for  a  dozen  different  chairs,  making  thus  va- 
riety in  unity. 

To  some  extent  Chippendale  adapted  from  exis- 
tent shapes.  And,  oddly  enough,  not  all  the  shapes 
known  as  his  are  to  be  found  in  his  published  book. 

He  made  no  sideboards,  as  the  term  is  nowadays 
understood.  His  sideboards  were  but  side-tables.  The 
sideboard  with  drawers  came  in  later  and  may  be 
either  Sheraton  or  Heppel white  or  Empire;  al- 
though it  has  come  to  be  common,  especially  with 
dealers,  to  use  the  term  "Chippendale  sideboard"  on 
account  of  the  appeal  of  the  name. 

After  some  years  of  vogue,  the  Chippendale  style 
was  displaced  by  others,  but  it  has  recently  come  into 
its  own  again. 

Heppelwhite  was  a  London  cabinet-maker  who 
came  into  prominence  about  the  time  of  our  Revo- 
lution. His  chairs  were  less  strong  than  those~cTf 
Chippendale,  because  of  the  construction  of  the 

las] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

backs,  which  were  always  of  the  shape  of  heart  or 
shield  or  oval,  and  most  of  them  delicately  beauti- 
ful. Fewer  of  these  chairs  are  in  existence,  as  they 
did  not  wear  well. 

Sheraton,  who  rose  to  prominence  a  few  years 
later  in  the  century  than  Heppelwhite,  never  made 
chairs  with  backs  like  those  of  either  of  his  prede- 
cessors. The  distinguishing  feature  with  his  chairs 
is  that  the  back,  except  for  the  uprights  on  either 
side,  never  comes  to  the  main  body  of  the  chair; 
there  is  never  a  splat  reaching  to  the  seat;  and  al- 
ways there  is  a  connecting  piece,  or  cross-rail,  run- 
ning horizontally  from  upright  to  upright,  just 
above  the  level  of  the  seat.  His  backs,  in  general 
effect,  are  square  or  rectangular. 

Many  of  the  Chippendale  chairs  have  straight  legs 
and  many  have  cabriole  legs.  Neither  the  Shera- 
ton nor  the  Heppelwhite  is  ever  cabriole. 

Sheraton  and  Heppelwhite,  although  they  dif- 
fered so  radically  as  to  their  chair  backs,  were 
greatly  alike  in  their  methods,  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  they  rather  scorned  each  other.  Their  tables, 
sofas  and  sideboards  are  often  greatly  similar,  with 
an  airy  lightness  of  effect,  and  with  straight  legs  ta- 
pering delicately  downward.  They  never  used  the 
claw-and-ball,  or  that  kind,  known  as  web-foot, 

[36] 


Shield-shaped  back 

Arm-chair  with  oval  back  and 
garland 


Heppelwhite  Chairs 

Arm-chair  with  upholstered  Shield-shaped  back,  no  under- 
back             .  bracing 

Side  chair  with  delicate  oval  A  perfect  type,  with  heart- 
back  shaped  back 


FEELING  OUR  WAY 

which  may  be  described  as  a  suggested  claw.  Chip- 
pendale used  not  only  the  plain  foot,  usually  very 
solid  and  substantial,  but  often  the  web  and  the 
claw-and-ball. 

The  typical  Sheraton  leg  is  round  and  delicately 
reeded,  or  fluted  as  it  is  sometimes  called;  the  typical 
Heppel white  leg  is  four-sided  and  never  fluted;  and 
in  this  lies  the  most  apparent  point  of  differentia- 
tion. 

Both  these  men  used  various  fine  woods  in  beau- 
tiful inlay-work  and  delicate  marquetry. 

The  Heppelwhite  furniture  averages  a  somewhat 
higher  beauty  than  the  Sheraton,  and  is  particularly 
noteworthy  in  chests  of  drawers  and  sideboards, 
with  curving  fronts,  swelling  or  serpentine,  and  in 
perfect  little  card-tables,  delicately  inlaid,  made  to 
stand,  when  not  in  use,  half  circularly  against  the 
wall. 

The  name  of  Adam  is  less  known,  and  this  is  largely 
because  the  Adams  (there  were  two  of  them)  made 
no  furniture  themselves,  and  did  little  besides  mak- 
ing designs  for  special  rooms.  They  flourished  at 
the  close  of  the  eighteenth  and  into  the  nineteenth 
century,  and,  having  closely  studied  classical  and 
Continental  styles,  much  of  their  work  was  distin- 
guished and  beautiful. 

[39] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

Something  should  be  known  of  the  stately  seven- 
teenth-century furniture,  with  its  beauty  of  carving 
and  painting,  its  cane-work  and  wainscoting.  It  is 
important  to  remember  that  in  that  century  there 
was  no  mahogany  in  furniture,  as  that  wood  did  not 
come  into  use  until  about  the  year  1700,  and  not 
commonly  until  about  1725.  The  famous  furniture 
collections  show  notable  seventeenth-century  exam- 
ples; there  are  some  fine  ones  in  Independence  Hall, 
there  are  some  still  in  possession  of  private  families, 
and  the  collector  may  hope  at  any  time  to  secure  one 
of  the  prizes.  Furniture  of  the  early  half  of  that 
century  is  known  as  Jacobean. 

Empire  is  a  famous  classification  in  old  furniture. 
It  denominates  the  style  that  arose  in  France  from 
the  revolt  that  accompanied  the  revolution  against 
the  old  order  of  things  in  art  as  in  government.  It 
attained  its  greatest  vogue  in  the  period  of  the  First 
Empire,  and  was  deeply  influenced  by  study  of  the 
ancient  classic  forms,  and  still  more  by  Napoleon's 
campaign  in  Egypt,  which  had  appealed  powerfully 
to  the  French  imagination.  Now  it  was  that  the 
winged  claw  came  in;  now  came  the  sphinx,  the  lion 
and  the  griffin;  now  came  a  revival  of  the  classical 
acanthus;  and  now  came  a  wealth  of  pineapple  tops 
and  legs  carved  in  twisted  rope.  There  were  splen- 

[40] 


Arm-chair  with  fine 
canework 

Simple  chair,  showing  char- 
acteristic Empire  curves 


Empire  Chairs 

Side  view  of  No.  i,  showing 
characteristic  classic  curves 

in  legs  and  back 
Side  chair  with  a  harp  back  ; 
the  front  legs  show  a  curve 


Arm-chair;  curves  of  the  back 
and  arms  show  the  period 

French  chair,  showing  the 
"  N  "  of  Napoleon  I 


FEELING  OUR  WAY 

dor  and  beauty  in  the  Empire  style,  but  soon  its  very 
opulence,  its  very  enthusiasm,  caused  it  to  degener- 
ate into  the  monumental,  the  extravagant  and  even 
the  grotesque.  Its  best  years  in  France  were  from 
1803  to  1807 — showing  the  weakness  of  nomencla- 
ture, for  Napoleon  was  not  Emperor  until  after 
1803,  and  the  most  splendid  time  of  his  Empire  was 
after  1807. 

The  style  came  to  America  in  the  opening  of  the 
century,  and  was  adopted  and  followed  with  enthu- 
siasm, but  at  the  same  time  with  a  saving  restraint, 
although  here,  too,  the  style  gradually  degenerated. 

From  the  first,  there  was  one  important  difference 
between  the  Empire  furniture  of  France  and  the 
Empire  of  America.  In  France,  ormolu  was  freely 
used,  and  over-decoration  the  sooner  resulted.  In 
the  United  States  ormolu  was  little  used.  With  us 
the  same  ornaments  were  used  as  by  the  French,  but 
where  the  French  made  them  of  ormolu  the  Ameri- 
cans carved  them  out  of  the  wood.  The  influence 
of  ormolu,  however,  is  seen  in  the  brass-tipped  feet 
of  a  considerable  number  of  Empire  pieces  of  Amer- 
ican make. 

The  taste  for  sideboards  with  drawers  having  rap- 
idly extended  in  the  quarter  of  a  century  following 
their  introduction,  there  were  many  made  in  Empire 

(%*] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

style,  and  many  are  still  obtainable.  There  were, 
too,  some  splendid  Empire  sofas.  On  this  side  of 
the  Atlantic  it  is  hard  to  find  good  Empire  chairs. 

These  are  the  principal  great  styles  in  regard  to 
which  the  beginner  should,  from  the  first,  have  a 
clear  idea. 

But  he  must  also  understand  that  not  only  is  there 
wide  variety  within  each  style,  but  that  there  are 
many  pieces  of  old  furniture  which  so  combine  var- 
ied styles,  or  are  so  different  from  any  precise  style, 
as  to  make  specific  classification  impossible.  Often 
one  can  only  say,  "an  old  chest  of  drawers,"  "a  five- 
slatted  chair,"  "a  slant-top  secretary,"  "an  eigh- 
teenth-century sofa,"  "a  snake-foot  tea-table."  At 
least  one  hundred  and  forty  cabinet-makers  are 
known  to  have  subscribed  for  the  book  of  designs 
which,  following  the  example  of  Chippendale,  Sher- 
aton issued,  and  among  these  there  were  many  who, 
instead  of  copying  precisely,  made  variations  to  suit 
their  individual  fancies. 

There  are,  too,  certain  names  of  a  different  kind 
of  derivation  and  of  narrower  application. 

Such,  for  example,  is  the  Pembroke,  the  name  ap- 
plied to  long  and  narrow  tables,  square-sided,  with 
ends  either  square  or  oval,  and  with  drop-leaves  at 
the  sides  so  long  as  to  reach  almost  to  the  floor. 

[44] 


FEELING  OUR  WAY 

These  came  from  the  name  of  the  eighteenth-century 
Lady  Pembroke  who  first  ordered  one  made. 

The  name  of  Windsor,  applied  to  the  style  of 
chair  which  held  wonderful  popularity  for  a  century, 
arose,  so  says  the  charming  old  tale  (for  every  tale  is 
charming  that  puts  royalty  in  a  cottage),  from  the 
fact  that  George  the  First  saw  a  chair  of  this  design 
in  a  humble  cottage  near  Windsor,  and  was  so  im- 
pressed by  it  that  he  had  a  number  made  for  his  own 
use,  thus  giving  the  design  an  instant  popularity. 

Never  did  any  chair  attain  a  wider  vogue.  King 
George  chair  though  it  was,  Jefferson  sat  in  one 
when  he  wrote  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and 
a  greater  George  than  the  king  of  that  name  had  a 
chair  of  this  pattern  in  his  bedroom  at  Mount  Ver- 
non,  and  thirty  on  his  piazza ! 

The  terms  Dutch,  French,  Spanish,  when  used  in 
regard  to  furniture,  are  self-explanatory,  and  to 
some  degree  useful  in  establishing  the  origin  of  the 
forms ;  but  when  one  finds  Spanish  chairs  commonly 
made  by  English  workmen,  Dutch  pieces  made  in 
Scotland,  French  pieces  made  in  Maryland,  the 
practical  utility  of  the  terms  diminishes.  For  cen- 
turies past,  there  has  been  a  vast  intercourse  between 
various  nations  and  continents,  and  chairs  and  ideas 
have  alike  been  interchanged. 

T45] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

A  century  ago  the  winged  claw  came  from  Egypt. 
Long  before  that  the  claw-and-ball  came  from  Hol- 
land. But  Holland  had  found  it  in  China! 

The  claw-and-ball  is  one  of  the  links  uniting  us  to 
the  haunted  and  mysterious  past  of  the  human  race. 
For  the  ball,  held  in  the  clawed  foot,  is  the  egg 
which  is  of  such  supreme  importance  in  the  mythol- 
ogy of  the  world.  What  came  to  us  from  China,  by 
way  of  Holland,  owed  its  inception  to  the  same 
deep-based  belief  that  made  the  egg  a  part  of  the 
monster  Serpent  Mound  of  Ohio. 

Although  the  terms  French,  Dutch,  Spanish,  Ital- 
ian will,  for  the  reason  pointed  out,  only  serve  to 
embarrass  the  beginner,  he  will  take  a  keen  delight, 
later,  in  widening  his  horizon  by  learning  consider- 
able in  regard  to  them  and  in  acquiring  a  know- 
ledge of  the  great  French  styles  that  preceded  the 
Empire:  the  Louis  Ouatorze,  magnificent  and  im- 
posing as  befitted  the  reign;  Louis  Quinze,  rich  and 
sumptuous  but  overdone,  fancy  run  riot  in  wood; 
Louis  Seize,  delicate  and  charming,  seeming  to  tell 
of  the  beauty  and  sparkle  and  wit  of  the  ancien  re- 
gime. The  term  Boulle  is  applied  to  work  rich  in 
tortoise-shell  and  inlay,  with  metal  and  thin  brass, 
and  is  the  name  of  the  seventeenth-century  cabinet- 
maker who  perfected  this  kind  of  work. 

[46] 


FEELING  OUR  WAY 

And,  after  all  these,  the  deluge  of  the  machine- 
made!  "What  a  fall  was  there,  my  countrymen!" 

The  beginner,  with  a  clear  outline  knowledge  of 
styles  and  periods,  and  having  familiarized  himself 
with  shapes  from  pictures  such  as  here  given,  will  be 
prepared  to  avoid  pitfalls  such  as  would  entrap  the 
uninformed.  And  he  should,  as  opportunity  offers, 
study  the  old  collections,  such  as  are  displayed  at 
Stenton  in  Philadelphia,  at  the  Van  Cortlandt  man- 
sion in  New  York,  at  the  Essex  Institute  in  Salem, 
and  Girard  College,  and  the  fine  collection  of  chairs 
at  the  Museum  of  the  Arts  of  Decoration  in  Cooper 
Union,  and  pieces  of  a  century  and  more  ago  that  re- 
main in  historical  buildings  such  as  Independence 
Hall,  Carpenters'  Hall,  Faneuil  Hall,  and  the  City 
Hall  of  New  York. 

And  then,  prepared  for  the  search  of  the  old  and 
the  beautiful,  he  should  set  forth  with  the  idea  that 
it  is  possible  to  come  upon  a  prize  at  the  most  unex- 
pected time  or  place.  Emerson  once  asked  Thoreau 
where  he  found  so  many  Indian  stones.  "Every- 
where!" responded  Thoreau,  stooping  as  he  spoke 
and  picking  up  a  beautiful  spear-head.  Thus  it  is 
with  old  furniture.  The  possibilities  lie  in  myriad 
places.  He  that  seeks  is  sure  to  find. 

Driving,  one  day,  through  a  district  that  was  new 

['47] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

to  us,  we  came  to  a  lonely  cross-roads,  where  stood 
a  deserted  house,  dilapidated,  ancient,  shingled  to 
the  ground.  The  yard  was  overgrown  with  mighty 
weeds.  But  the  real  collector  never  ignores  a  dilap- 
idated and  deserted  old  house. 

The  floors  were  falling  in,  the  roof  was  half  gone, 
there  was  not  an  article  of  furniture  in  the  rooms  on 
the  ground  floor  or  the  second  floor,  or  in  that  place 
where  furniture  is  so  frequently  found,  the  attic. 

But  the  stars  in  their  courses  fight  for  old  furni- 
ture. In  leaving,  a  sort  of  lean-to,  off  the  kitchen, 
was  looked  into,  and  in  that  lean-to,  with  the  roof 
partly  fallen  down  over  it,  was  a  good-looking,  old- 
fashioned  corner-cupboard,  which  needed  only  slight 
repairs  to  put  it  into  presentable  condition.  The 
house  was  a  tenant  house  and  the  last  tenant  had 
moved  away  some  years  before,  taking  all  his  belong- 
ings with  him.  "Something  there,  did  you  say?  It 's 
just  a  bit  he  did  n't  care  to  carry  off,  then." 

Which  illustrates  the  point,  so  often  tending  to 
the  good  of  the  collector,  that  all  the  world  does  not 
have  the  same  taste  as  himself.  Many  are  the 
persons,  rich  and  poor,  who  care  nothing  for  grace- 
ful old  furniture  and  the  serene  touch  of  age.  It  is 
fortunate  that  it  is  so,  for  if  all  the  world  wished  for 
these  things  there  would  soon  be  none  left  to  seek  for. 

[48] 


FEELING  OUR  WAY 

"Old  friends,  old  times,  old  manners,  old  books, 
old  wine,"  were  what  Hardcastle  loved.  And  many 
will  add  to  these  old  furniture.  For  the  old  times 
and  the  old  manners  come  dreamily  back  amid  the 
fine  old  shapes  of  the  past.  No  old  book  is  so  fas- 
cinating as  when  read  from  the  depths  of  an  ancient 
fireside  settle.  Nothing  tastes  so  good  as  when 
served  on  old  mahogany.  And  it  is  charming  to  see 
old  friends  seated  in  one's  old  chairs  or  circled  about 
a  splendid  table  of  the  past. 


f49] 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  FINDING  OF  OLD-TIME  HOUSES 

HOW  pleasurably  the  discovery  of  the  "Old 
Stone   House,"    as   we    always   called   it, 
comes   back   to   us!     We   came   across   it 
shortly  after  having  realized  that  we  should  like  to 
live  in  an  old-time  house  that  would  be  in  harmony 
with  old-time  furniture. 

The  house  stood  upon  a  hillside,  in  the  midst  of  a 
grove  of  old  apple  trees,  and  was  but  half  an  hour 
by  railroad  from  the  Western  city  which  was  at  that 
time  our  home.  We  were  passing,  on  the  highroad; 
and  the  captivating  site  and  the  prepossessing  pro- 
portions and  an  air  such  as  appertains  to  the  charm- 
ing stone  cottages  which  one  sees  by  the  roadside  in 
England  or  Scotland,  irresistibly  attracted  us.  We 
mounted  the  stone  steps  that  led  up  from  the  road, 
so  that  we  might  see  if  the  unoccupied  aspect  were 
but  an  accidental  simulation.  The  house  was  as 

[50] 


THE  FINDING  OF  OLD-TIME  HOUSES 

empty  as  it  looked,  and  so,  that  very  afternoon,  that 
very  hour,  we  sought  out  the  owner  and  learned  up- 
on what  terms  it  might  be  had. 

With  the  coming  of  the  spring  we  were  living 
there !  And  in  that  living  we  tasted  a  new  savor  in 
life. 

An  old  house  is  not,  indeed,  an  indispensable  ad- 
junct for  the  lover  of  the  old.  Furniture  of  old  de- 
sign has  charm  even  in  a  modern  house  or  in  a  city 
apartment.  But  it  is  a  source  of  additional  gratifi- 
cation to  house  one's  ancient  things  in  a  building  that 
is  also  associated  with  the  past. 

That  little  house  of  stone  which  was  our  initial 
triumph  residential,  was  such  an  individual  house! 
Old  it  was,  for  that  part  of  the  country,  dating  back 
as  it  did  to  the  early  part  of  the  century  just  past. 
What  is  old  or  ancient  in  the  Middle  West  is  not  so 
ancient  in  New  York,  and  what  is  ancient  in  New 
York  is  not  ancient  in  England,  and  what  is  ancient 
in  England  would  be  deemed  youthful  in  Rome. 

This  house  possessed  the  charm  of  personal  touch 
and  of  personal  achievement,  although  not  in  any 
sense  of  distinguished  history.  It  had  been  built  in 
spite  of  daunting  obstacles,  and  about  the  building 
of  it  there  was  a  pretty  tale  of  marital  devotion. 

It  was  of  the  sandstone  of  the  neighborhood; 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

heavy-caved  it  was,  and  the  front  windows  looked 
out  over  a  river  valley  and  those  at  either  end  into 
apple  trees  and  up  and  down  a  sweeping  hill  and  val- 
ley view. 

Half  a  dozen  veritable  ghost  stories,  too,  had 
clustered  about  it.  One  ghost  dug  in  the  cellar  for 
a  pot  of  gold;  another  dragged  a  chain  across  the 
roof;  and  there  were  several  more.  We  heard,  one 
midnight  (yes,  literally  at  midnight!),  the  ghost 
delving  with  a  mattock  in  the  cellar;  we  heard  the 
rattled  chain;  and  we  understood  how  it  was  that  a 
deep-seated  dread  had  gradually  grown,  and  why 
there  were  some  rooms  in  the  house  into  which  resi- 
dents of  the  vicinity  would  on  no  account  enter. 

We  had  the  fascinating  experience  of  laying  a 
few  of  the  ghosts  by  determining  the  source  of  the 
sounds,  and  as  to  one  closed  room,  without  door  or 
window,  which  had  been  closed  in,  by  the  original 
builder,  under  the  long  eaves,  as  a  matter  of  con- 
venience, and  about  which  a  tale  of  ghostliness  had 
grown,  we  settled  the  tradition  by  opening  the  room 
to  household  use  and  finding  that  squirrels  had  been 
holding  ghost  carnival  there  with  nuts. 

It  is  pleasant  to  look  back  through  the  years,  at 
that  stone  house  on  the  hillside,  with  the  apple  trees 
all  about  it  and  the  spring  of  water  in  the  cellar.  It 

[52] 


"The  single  street  of  the  attenuated  town.' 


THE  FINDING  OF  OLD-TIME  HOUSES 

is  altered  now,  in  itself  and  its  surroundings,  but  we 
speak  of  it  here,  as  it  was  the  natural  outcome  of  the 
gathering  of  old  furniture,  and  points  out  a  kind  of 
possibility  open  to  the  collector  who  has  love  and 
faith. 

We  smile,  too,  in  retrospect,  when  we  remember 
that  we  really  had  quite  a  reputation,  then,  as  the 
possessors  of  Colonial  furniture,  in  spite  of  what  we 
now  know  to  be  the  fact,  that  our  pieces  were  at  that 
time  meagre  and  few. 

A  spinning-wheel,  for  example,  ought  not  really 
to  stand  for  very  much,  even  though  charmingly 
made,  and  even  though  accompanied,  as  ours  was, 
with  a  greater  wheel  for  the  making  of  yarn,  for 
such  pieces,  even  though  of  history,  are  not  for  use, 
nowadays,  nor  are  they  precisely  ornamental,  except 
in  some  corner  of  a  large  house,  where  they  can  with 
propriety  and  effectiveness  be  placed.  Yet  those 
wheels  did  much  to  give  us  a  status ;  and  there  were 
in  addition  the  Blennerhassett  andirons,  an  old  chest 
of  drawers,  some  china  and  candlesticks,  the  brass 
teakettle,  and  some  other  articles.  Perhaps  we  had, 
in  some  quarters,  a  rather  higher  reputation  then,  as 
collectors,  than  we  even  now  deserve;  all  of  which 
but  tends  to  amuse  one  as  to  the  opinions  of  the 
world. 

[55] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

We  began  to  realize  that  we  could  not  remain 
there  forever,  that  our  gathering  of  furniture  must 
be  for  some  Castle  in  Spain,  still  to  be  acquired;  and 
for  a  few  years  there  was  an  interregnum  of  living 
in  the  larger  cities  of  the  East.  But  whether  in  a 
house  in  Philadelphia  or  an  apartment  in  New 
York,  the  search  for  furniture  was  never  forgotten. 
On  the  contrary,  we  were  finding  new  and  wider  op- 
portunities and  it  was  a  period  of  interesting  acqui- 
sition. 

The  progress  of  our  quest,  and  the  pleasures  which 
such  a  quest  may  give,  were  marked  at  this  time  by  a 
dinner  which  it  was  now  possible  to  furnish  forth  in 
Colonial  form. 

The  soup  was  served  from  a  huge  and  aged  blue 
tureen  and  each  of  our  friends  had  an  old  blue  bowl. 
A  pewter  platter,  mighty  in  diameter,  held  a  turkey 
which,  in  accordance  with  old-time  formula,  had 
been  fed  on  beech  nuts.  A  Virginia  ham,  a  verita- 
ble Smithfield,  boiled  in  cider  and  baked  with  cloves, 
was  also  enthroned  in  blue,  and  corn-pone  and 
Maryland  beaten  biscuit  added  their  effect.  An  an- 
cient tall  tankard  of  pewter  held  cider,  and  a  pewter 
mug  was  at  the  side  of  each  plate.  Each  of  the  enor- 
mous dinner  plates  was  old  and  blue.  The  salts 
were  three-legged  and  of  the  past.  The  cups  were 

[56] 


THE  FINDING  OF  OLD-TIME  HOUSES 

of  varying  degrees  of  interest.  One  had  belonged  to 
that  Major  Tallmadge  whose  prompt  action  in  the 
Andre  case,  in  defiance  of  the  hesitating  demur  of 
his  superior  officer,  was  of  such  vital  importance  to 
the  Republic,  and  it  came  to  us  through  a  lineal  de- 
scendant. Another,  from  a  friend  in  Concord,  had 
been  part  of  a  set  owned  by  that  Major  Butt  rick  at 
whose  command  was  fired  the  shot  heard  round  the 
world.  One  was  from  an  old  family  of  Tallahas- 
see, one  came  from  England,  another  from  Scotland. 
Six  of  the  spoons  were  of  the  "rat-tail"  variety; 
three,  of  Austrian  make,  had  been  given  us  by  a 
friend  whose  family  had  brought  them  from  that 
country  many  years  ago,  and  the  other  three,  a  pre- 
cise match,  were  found  in  Venice,  a  city  which  was 
long  held  by  Austria.  The  tablecloth  was  of  linen 
spun  and  woven  four  generations  back,  and  the 
liqueur  glasses  were  all  old  ones,  of  varying  shapes, 
picked  up,  each  in  a  different  city  of  the  old  world, 
as  Tours,  Padua,  Basle,  Milan.  The  table  was  an 
old  Sheraton,  of  mahogany,  and  the  room  was 
lighted  with  candles;  each  candlestick  having  a  his- 
tory or  an  association  with  some  interesting  locality. 
At  length,  while  we  were  still  city  dwellers,  we 
discovered  the  house  which  was  to  be  a  further  re- 
alization of  alluring  possibilities. 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

Toward  the  close  of  a  day  in  early  spring  we  en- 
tered an  old-time  town,  less  than  fifty  miles  from 
New  York  City.  We  were  visiting  friends,  who 
lived  in  a  house  that  stood  before  the  Revolution, 
and  after  dinner  we  strolled  down  the  single  street 
of  the  attenuated  town,  a  street  shaded  by  beautiful 
trees  and  with  close-by  hills  looking  sleepily  down 
upon  it. 

And  at  the  end  of  the  village  stood  an  ancient 
quadrupedal  sign,  placed  high  upon  its  pedestal  of 
granite,  in  the  midst  of  a  tiny  triangular  green.  And 
facing  out  toward  the  ancient  sign  was  a  large, 
square-front,  red-brick  building,  stately  but  desolate, 
maple-shaded,  and  with  a  monster  trumpet  vine 
clinging  to  its  front. 

At  once  it  fascinated  us.  In  the  middle  front, 
beneath  a  charming  beehive  window,  was  a  portico, 
stone-floored,  with  four  white  columns  rising  to  its 
little  roof  and  with  an  iron  railing  bending  down  at 
either  side  of  the  generous  stone  steps  and  termina- 
ting at  the  bottom  in  clustered  bars  surmounted  by  a 
round  brass  knob  at  either  side. 

Solid  shutters  shut  in  the  windows;  yet  not  for- 
biddingly— only  with  a  sort  of  austere  reserve. 
And  we  peered  into  the  hall  through  the  narrow  win- 
dows at  either  side  of  the  door,  and  gained  an  im- 
pression of  spaciousness  and  freedom. 

[58] 


THE  FINDING  OF  OLD-TIME  HOUSES 

The  owner  crossed  the  street  from  his  house,  see- 
ing that  a  neighbor  with  visitors  was  looking  at  the 
once-while  inn.  "Should  you  like  to  look  through 
it?"  he  said. 

"Yes,  indeed;  we  are  interested  in  buildings  with 
old  fireplaces." 

The  owner  smiled.  "There  are  sixteen  of  them, 
counting  fireplaces  and  Franklins !" 

We  entered  through  the  heavy-paneled  door.  We 
walked  through  the  spacious  hall,  eleven  feet  wide 
and  thirty-seven  feet  long.  We  looked  at  the  arching 
in  the  centre  with  its  supports  of  fluted  pilasters. 

It  was  a  case  of  love  at  first  sight.  We  opened 
room  after  room.  We  handled  brass  knobs.  We 
fumbled  latches.  We  counted  the  fireplaces.  We 
mounted  to  the  outlook,  in  the  centre  of  the  roof, 
and  looked  at  the  hills  and  the  sweeping  stretches  of 
woods  and  pasture-land.  We  went  down  into  the 
great  cellars,  ranging  beneath  the  entire  house.  We 
stood  behind  the  bar  in  the  taproom.  We  peered 
into  the  mud-turtle  roof  of  the  old  brick  oven.  We 
peered  behind  the  fireboard  of  the  largest  of  the  fire- 
places. And  before  long  we  were  able  to  make  the 
building  our  home. 

A  staidly  restful  village,  this,  out  of  our  Ameri- 
can past.  It  was  prosperous  and  busy,  back  in 
stage-coach  days,  but  it*  has  shed  the  raspy  burr  of 

[61] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

business  and  only  the  sweet  kernel  of  repose  re- 
mains. The  atmosphere  of  a  serene  and  mellow 
past  enfolds  it,  and  the  old-time  inn  shares  to  the 
full  the  charm  of  mellowness  and  serenity.  This 
building  was  not  constructed  until  after  the  Revolu- 
tion, but  Washington  himself  often  rode  past  where 
it  stands  and  once  he  camped  on  the  low-sweeping 
ridge  over  which  the  morning  sun  looks  in  at  our 
front  windows.  The  entire  vicinity  is  rich  in  mem- 
ories of  the  brave  and  stately  American  officers  and 
of  their  proud,  peruked  and  periwigged  allies  of 
France. 

So  much  for  the  setting.  And,  for  the  house  it- 
self, it  is  associated  with  many  a  famous  man  of  the 
past,  with  Aaron  Burr,  and  Martin  Van  Buren,  and 
Horace  Greeley,  and  Washington  Irving,  and  Gou- 
verneur  Morris,  and  many  another  of  national  or  lo- 
cal fame. 

The  stately  old  Georgian  house  was  bare  of  fur- 
niture ;  but  its  rooms  were  of  the  kind  that  seem  half 
furnished  even  when  empty,  so  perfect  in  proportion 
they  are  and  of  such  dignified  fineness  of  line.  And 
in  the  rehabilitation,  one  could  not  but  have  the 
pleasurable  feeling  as  of  restoring  to  the  building 
its  own,  of  placing  old  furniture  in  rooms  that  had 
been  made  for  it. 

[62] 


THE  FINDING  OF  OLD-TIME  HOUSES 

With  a  garden,  and  flowers,  and  an  orchard  of 
two-score  trees,  we  could  feel  that  we  had  delight- 
fully gone  back  to  the  land  as  well  as  gone  back  into 
the  delicate  atmosphere  of  the  past. 

Exceptional,  all  this?  No.  Others  have  done 
similarly.  Almost  any  one  can  do  similarly  if  he  so 
wishes.  And,  in  regions  where  there  is  nothing  of 
old-fashioned  architecture,  houses  may  be  built  like 
those  of  the  past.  A  group  of  lovers  of  the  old  in 
one  of  the  cities  of  the  West  recently  bought  a  near- 
by village,  every  house  in  it,  and  all  the  land,  and 
then  remodeled  the  houses  with  great  effectiveness 
after  old  designs  and  are  allowing  no  new  houses  to 
be  built  except  of  the  same  general  style. 

But  in  many  a  section  no  altering,  no  copying  is 
needed.  At  almost  any  place  within  from  twenty- 
five  to  fifty  miles  of  New  York,  Boston,  Philadel- 
phia or  numerous  other  cities — often  at  still  nearer 
points — you  may  be  sure  of  finding  an  empty  old- 
time  house. 

If  such  a  house  be  desired  for  use  in  summer  only, 
or  if  nearness  to. a  city  be  not  essential,  the  field  is 
vastly  wider.  In  the  Berkshires,  sought  out  though 
they  are  by  thousands  as  a  place  of  recreation,  there 
are  scores  of  deserted  houses  open  to  the  storms  of 
winter  and  the  sun  of  summer.  We  counted  over 

[63] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

thirty  in  a  single  day's  drive  in  the  Farmington 
valley. 

But  it  is  the  possibility  of  finding  old-time  houses 
within  easy  reach  of  great  cities  that  is  most  unex- 
pected and  captivating. 

Not  that  they  give  every  indication  of  being  ready 
for  delightful  occupancy.  On  the  contrary,  they 
are  apt  to  give  a  first  impression  of  being  highly  un- 
desirable wrecks ;  as  being,  for  one  reason  or  another, 
impossible;  and  they  are  liable  to  be  weather-beaten 
and  in  need  of  paint  and  their  surroundings  to  be 
overgrown  with  weeds.  It  is  with  old  houses  as  it 
is  with  old  furniture :  the  eye  of  faith  is  necessary. 

Why,  some  time  after  our  happy  discovery  of  it, 
and  before  we  knew  that  we  should  be  able  to 
live  here  ourselves,  we  told  of  it  to  two  friends  who 
had  confided  to  us  their  longing  to  find  some  old 
place  in  the  country  not  too  far  away  from  New 
York.  They  came  here ;  they  looked  the  house  over ; 
but  they  had  not  the  eye  of  faith,  and  they  decided 
that  it  would  not  do.  "Why,  the  walls  of  the  hall 
are  blue  and  the  woodwork  is  red!"  they  exclaimed 
in  horror ! 

The  charge  was  true  enough.  The  evidence  of  eye- 
sight was  incontrovertible.  But  how  long  should  it 
have  taken  them  to  change  the  two  offending  colors'? 

[64] 


THE  FINDING  OF  OLD-TIME  HOUSES 

Those  friends  have  been  here,  since — and  noted, 
with  a  puzzled  surprise,  that  the  hall  is  white  and 
buff,  as  befits  a  Colonial  hall  and  as  this  one  was 
originally. 

It  was  with  pleasurable  zeal  that  we  began  to 
settle  ourselves  in  the  once-while  inn,  with  its  an- 
cient sign-post,  so  picturesquely  placed,  and  its  mon- 
ster lilac  bushes.  And  an  interesting  coincidental 
touch  is  that  Shakespeare  uses  the  name,  saying  that 
"in  the  suburbs,"  at  an  inn  of  this  very  name,  "it  is 
best  to  lodge." 

One  evening,  recently,  there  was  seated  with  us 
a  fine  old  lady,  whose  memory  ran  far  back  into  the 
past.  She  spoke  of  tales  that  were  told  when  she  was 
young,  and  of  her  own  far-away  girlhood  here;  she 
told  of  men  and  women  of  a  time  that  is  past  and  of 
how,  at  balls  at  this  inn,  guests  came  from  many 
miles  away  to  dance  till  dawn,  and  of  nights  upon 
which,  men  said,  there  was  high  play  here  and  great 
sums  lost  or  won.  And  then  she  told  of  how,  in  this 
very  room,  she  had  once  sat  close  to  Washington 
Irving,  fine  gentleman  of  the  old  school  that  he  was, 
and  of  how  he  looked  and  acted  and  spoke.  "Mr. 
Irving  was  not  precisely  what  one  would  call  a 
handsome  man,"  said  the  old  lady  softly,  "but  one 
could  not  miss  seeing  that  he  was  a  distinguished 

[65] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

one."     And  she  told  with  awe,  too,  of  how  he  briefly 
referred  to  his  late  friend,  Sir  Walter  Scott. 

And  the  old  clock  ticked  in  the  hall,  and  the  leap- 
ing fire  glimmered  in  the  score  of  reflections  in  the 
room,  and  outside,  in  the  darkness,  rows  of  reflec- 
tions of  candles  were  shining,  as  if  to  light  all  of  us 
back  into  the  glamour  and  the  mystery  of  the  past. 


£rrfr^^T?TIr?7?=^ 


[66]' 


IIIIUMIIIIIIMIIIIHI|lllllllirB»M         Him 


CHAPTER  IV 

ALTERING  THE    HOUSE 

AD    so,    with  the  old  white-porticoed  maple- 
shaded  house  in  our  possession,  it  was  to  be 
a  pleasant  task  to  place  properly  within  it 
the  old  furniture  that  we  had,  and  then  to  look  about 
for  enough  more  to  make  the  house  complete.    And 
the  great  halls  and  the  lofty  rooms,  corniced  with 
simple  elaborateness,  were  a  charming  incentive. 

"Old  houses  mended,  cost  little  less  than  new  be- 
fore they're  ended!"  cried  the  cynical  Colley  Cib- 
ber;  but  assuredly  that  was  very  far  from  being  the 
case  in  the  rehabilitation  of  the  once-while  inn.  For 
although  the  building,  naturally  enough,  had  some- 
what of  a  dilapidated  appearance  when  we  first  saw 
it,  it  was  firm  and  strong  in  essentials.  The  great, 
thick  walls  were  good,  and  the  roof  was  good,  and 
the  flooring  was  good,  and  the  ceilings  in  every  room 

[67] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

but  one  were  good.  With  such  excellent  points  in 
our  favor  we  could  afford  to  smile  at  Gibber's  cyni- 
cism; although  perhaps  a  complete  restoration,  out- 
side and  in,  including  eaves  and  waxed  floors  and 
the  addition  of  porcelain  tubs  and  various  conveni- 
ent sundries  not  absolutely  essential,  would  make 
Gibber  sager  than  he  seems. 

The  red  and  the  azure-blue  of  the  halls,  from  top 
to  bottom  of  the  house,  a  sort  of  acreage  of  space 
when  we  came  to  look  at  it,  was  among  the  things 
imperatively  demanding  attention.  But  a  man, 
working  for  a  couple  of  days,  sandpapered  away  the 
offending  colors,  with  only  the  accompaniment  of 
clouds  of  dust,  and  then  the  white  for  the  woodwork 
and  the  soft  buff  for  the  walls  were  quickly  put  in 
place;  the  walls  being  treated  in  tempera — that  is, 
the  color  being  applied  with  size  instead  of  oil. 

The  old  kitchen  of  the  inn  was  a  great  room, 
twenty-six  feet  by  sixteen,  occupying  the  ground 
floor  of  an  extension  at  the  rear,  opening  from  the 
end  of  the  main  hall.  At  the  farther  end  of  this 
room  was  a  huge  brick  fireplace,  whose  structure  ex- 
tended from  ceiling  to  floor,  the  opening  in  the  brick 
being  of  the  capacious  width  of  eight  feet,  a  height 
of  six  feet,  and  a  depth  of  three.  At  the  side  was  the 
ancient  oven,  built  into  the  depth  of  the  chimney. 

[68] 


n      en 


i 


ALTERING  THE  HOUSE 

There  were  wooden  cupboards  along  two  of  the 
walls,  there  was  a  decrepit  sink,  and  the  fireplace  it- 
self was  bricked  in  at  either  end,  besides  holding  in 
its  middle  an  utterly  dilapidated  range. 

But  in  spite  of  the  discouragements  in  aspect,  the 
lines  were  there,  and  the  fireplace  was  there,  and  the 
oak  floor  was  there,  and  therefore  the  possibilities 
were  there. 

And,  first,  it  was  a  sin  against  opportunity  to  use 
such  a  room  for  a  kitchen.  Its  shape,  and  the  hos- 
pitably capacious  fireplace,  and  the  pleasant  loca- 
tion at  the  end  of  the  hall,  and  the  pleasing  view 
toward  the  hills,  and  the  fact  that  this  comfortable 
room  had  a  lower  ceiling  than  any  of  the  principal 
rooms  of  the  house,  all  combined  to  mark  it  out  as  a 
sitting-room,  a  working-room. 

He  who  would  successfully  adopt  an  old  house 
must  approach  it  with  openness  of  mind  and  a  readi- 
ness to  metamorphose,  and  one  of  our  first  cares  was 
to  make  this  room  what  it  was  so  closely  fitted  fon 

Nor  was  it  a  difficult  task.  Like  most  of  the  em- 
inently fit  things  to  be  done  about  a  house,  it  was 
easily  done. 

The  wooden  cupboards  along  the  walls,  snuffy 
and  of  no  design,  were  removed,  as  was  also  the  sink. 
A  pickaxe  cleared  away,  in  an  hour,  the  broken  old 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

range  and  the  brick  at  the  fireplace  ends.  The 
hearth,  of  brick,  was  good  and  sound,  and  in  front 
of  this,  before  the  oak  flooring  began,  was  a  surface 
of  brick,  two  feet  wide,  supported  upon  an  arch  in 
the  cellar. 

The  brick  of  this  two-foot  section  had  woefully 
sunk,  and  a  workman  who  was  to  repair  it  sent  word 
that  he  could  not  come.  It  was  a  case  of  immediate 
need;  and  again,  like  many  another  case,  presented 
not  nearly  so  formidable  a  difficulty  as  it  at  first  sight 
appeared  to  do.  For,  after  all,  "another  man  may 
do  what  has  by  man  been  done !"  So,  in  the  even- 
ing, with  the  butcher  knife  the  sunken  brick  were 
lifted  out,  disclosing  the  bed  of  sand  on  which  all 
old  hearths  are  laid.  The  gutter  by  the  roadside 
was  full  of  fine  sand,  and  some  fifteen  bucketfuls 
raised  the  bed  to  its  proper  level.  The  bricks  were 
then  relaid,  and  sand  and  water  were  used  to  fill  up 
the  crevices  as  the  amateur  worker  had  seen  them 
used  in  the  laying  of  brick  sidewalks  when  he  was  a 
boy;  and  in  less  than  two  hours  what  had  threatened 
to  be  a  formidable  taskVas  entirely  completed. 

The  walls  of  the  old  room  had  had  many  a  coat  of 
whitewash  in  the  years  that  had  gone.  Scaly  and 
yellow  and  blistered  they  were;  but  a  man  with  a 
hoe  soon  peeled  them  down  to  the  original  surface. 

[72] 


ALTERING  THE  HOUSE 

Friendly  discouragers  told  us  that  paper  could 
never  be  made  to  stick  on  such  a  wall ;  but  there  is  a 
way  to  make  it  stick.  The  paperhanger  first  put  on 
vinegar  to  kill  the  action  of  the  lime,  then  glue; 
then,  at  the  end  of  a  day's  work  in  another  room,  he 
took  what  paste  he  had  left  and  a  pound  of  glue,  and 
brushed  over  the  ceiling  and  walls  with  this  stick- 
iest of  mixtures.  Then,  indeed,  the  wallpaper 
stuck ! 

Low  shelves  for  books  were  now  placed  against 
the  walls,  for  the  greater  part  of  three  sides  of  the 
room,  and  then  all  was  ready  for  the  furniture. 
"There  was  in  the  rear  of  the  house,"  once  wrote 
Hawthorne  of  another  charming  old  building,  "the 
most  delightful  little  nook  that  ever  afforded  snug 
seclusion."  And,  somehow,  we  now  had  such  a 
nook,  except  that  it  was  not  precisely  what  one 
would  term  little.  But  it  was  none  the  less  snug, 
with  its  three  windows,  and  the  cavernous  fireplace 
in  which  the  flames  would  leap  and  roar. 

But,  having  metamorphosed  the  kitchen  into  a  sit- 
ting-room, it  was  necessary  to  transform  some  other 
room  into  a  kitchen.  However,  there  was  a  room 
all  ready  to  our  hand — the  taproom !  For  in  an  inn  ' 
that  is  no  longer  to  be  an  inn,  nothing  so  lags  super- 
fluous as  the  taproom.  This  one  was  conveniently 

[73] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

situated  for  the  new  service  to  which  we  destined  it. 
It  was  a  matter  of  putting  the  wooden  bar  down  in 
the  cellar,  of  altering  bottle  cupboards  into  dish  cup- 
boards, of  transposing  some  shelving  into  a  side- 
table  ;  and  the  thing  was  done. 

In  this  room  stood  one  of  the  ancient  Franklins; 
open-front  arrangements  of  iron  with  gracefully 
curving  jambs,  half  stove  and  half  fireplace,  of  a 
good  deal  of  dignity  in  appearance,  brass  orna- 
mented and  with  bands  of  brass;  the  fire  to  burn  on 
a  flat  open  hearth,  with  the  use  of  andirons;  and 
such  things  were  eminently  fitting  in  a  house  of  this 
sort  because  of  their  really  having  been  the  inception 
of  the  famous  Colonial  personage  whose  name  still 
clings  to  them :  the  many-sided  genius  who,  not  con- 
tent with  fetching  fire  from  the  sky,  wanted  to  show 
people  how  to  use  fire  in  their  own  houses. 

This  particular  Franklin,  however,  had  to  be 
taken  out,  as  it  was  not  fitted  for  kitchen  use.  It 
was  then  a  simple  matter  to  have  the  wall  bricked 
up  where  it  had  stood.  Then  a  modern  cooking 
range  was  set  up  (for  the  love  of  the  old  does  not 
properly  or  advantageously  carry  with  it  a  love  for 
the  defects  of  the  old) ;  and  there  was  our  kitchen, 
with  a  door  into  the  broad  hall  directly  across  from 
the  dining-room. 


ALTERING  THE  HOUSE 

The  double  parlors  of  the  inn,  one  of  which  we 
made  our  dining-room,  possessed  fireplaces  which 
had  been  bricked  up.  This  bricking  up  of  old  fire- 
places is  often  done  and  looks  formidably  final,  but 
it  was  the  task  of  less  than  half  an  hour  to  have  the 
brick  torn  out  and  ready  for  removal.  Finely  pro- 
portioned fireplaces  were  revealed;  but  alas!  there 
were  none  of  the  treasures  which  we  had  fancied 
might  be  there.  In  many  an  old  house  there  are  the 
fine  andirons,  or  cranes,  or  perhaps  even  a  fender,  of 
iron  or  the  now  precious  brass,  hidden  away  and  for- 
gotten behind  the  boards  or  brick  with  which  the 
fronts  of  ancient  fireplaces  are  closed.  In  this  en- 
tire inn,  however,  with  its  wealth  of  fireplaces,  we 
found  but  one  pair  of  andirons  thus  forgotten — but 
it  was  a  pleasure  to  find  those ! 

Putting  the  rest  of  the  house  in  a  state  of  prepara- 
tion for  furniture  was  now,  in  the  main,  a  matter  of 
no  lengthy  detail. 

A  hole  in  the  wall  between  the  once-while  kitchen 
and  the  dining-room,  for  convenience  in  serving,  was 
no  longer  of  use,  and  it  was  bricked  in  and  papered. 
Every  Franklin  in  the  house  was  painted  black. 
Here  and  there  was  a  stovepipe  hole  through  the 
ceiling,  and  every  such  mar  was  repaired. 

Wallpaper  had  to  be  chosen  for  the  various  rooms, 

[75] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

and  this  was  a  matter  requiring  time  and  care,  to  se- 
cure papers  which  should  accentuate  the  old-fash- 
ioned period,  harmonize  with  furniture  and  pictures, 
and  be  beautiful.  In  a  general  way,  our  choice  fell 
upon  greens  and  yellows,  of  which,  in  these  days,  it 
is  possible  to  secure  specially  effective  designs. 

Some  of  the  doors  were  without  their  original 
brass  knobs;  and  in  those  cases  new  knobs  were  put 
on — new  old  knobs,  that  is,  as  we  possessed  a  con- 
siderable number  of  old  ones,  picked  up,  from  time 
to  time,  in  anticipation  of  need,  at  junk  shops  or 
village  carpenter  shops,  and  even  two  pair  that  we 
found  on  a  street  stand  in  an  out-of-the-way  corner 
of  Naples.  It  is  well  to  cultivate  the  habit  of  gath- 
ering such  things — the  small  change  of  furniture,  so 
to  speak. 

The  front  door  was  without  its  original  knob,  and 
had  an  ugly  one  of  white  crockery.  There  was  a 
similar  one  for  the  bell  wire.  Fortunately,  in  our 
possession  was  a  pair,  found  long  before  in  Penn- 
sylvania, of  beautiful  oval  knobs,  of  brass,  attract- 
ively grooved  in  rays,  and  these  were  used. 

The  old  knocker  had  long  since  disappeared,  leav- 
ing upon  the  door  only  the  marring  marks  of  bolt- 
holes  stuffed  with  putty.  By  sheer  luck  an  ancient 
knocker,  found  in  Quebec  and  long  treasured,  was 

[76] 


ALTERING  THE  HOUSE 

not  only  precisely  the  style  of  knocker  for  the  door 
but  its  bolts  so  exactly  fitted  into  the  ancient  holes 
that  it  was  not  necessary  to  damage  the  door  in  the 
slightest  degree  in  putting  it  on.  A  number  of  old 
residents  have  said,  "Why,  I  see  you  have  found  the 
original  knocker!" 

In  addition  to  the  brass  knocker  and  brass  knobs 
thus  placed  beneath  the  white  portico,  there  was  a 
brass  knob  on  either  side  of  the  steps  at  the  foot  of 
the  rail.  These  last  knobs,  however,  did  not  ap- 
pear to  be  of  that  metal;  for  so  long  a  period  that 
village  memory  ran  not  to  the  contrary  they  had 
passed  as  knobs  of  iron  painted  green;  but  a  thor- 
ough polishing  showed  the  brass. 

The  banisters  needed  a  few  new  spindles  and  the 
village  carpenter,  himself  an  aged  relic  of  the  past, 
was  willing  to  replace  them  but  was  fluttered  by 
the  very  thought.  Weeks  went  by.  But  when,  one 
day,  a  spindle  to  serve  as  a  pattern  was  pried  out  of 
its  place  and  carried  to  his  shop  and  laid  down  be- 
fore him,  all  was  at  once  simplified.  "Why,  of 
course!"  And  that  afternoon  he  appeared  at  the 
inn  with  the  new  pieces  made  carefully  out  of  a  ma- 
hogany plank,  and  forthwith  proceeded  to  put  them 
in  place. 

With  the  gate  beside  the  house  there  was  more 

[77] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

difficulty.  A  stone  wall  was  there,  and  in  the  wall 
a  gap  with  a  pair  of  iron  sockets  which  had  once  sup- 
ported the  gate,  which  long  before  had  gone — gone 
none  knew  whitherward,  perhaps  on  some  old-time 
night  of  Hallowe'en. 

The  old  carpenter  shook  his  head.  "A  long  and 
expensive  job!  The  hinges  will  have  to  be  made 
specially  to  fit  these  sockets,  to  begin  with!"  He 
shook  his  head  dolefully.  "And  I  have  n't  any  suit- 
able wood,  either!"  And,  after  another  presenta- 
tion of  the  case  on  our  part,  "What  do  you  want  a 
gate  for,  anyway?"  he  asked  whimsically. 

But,  driving  with  a  friend  a  few  days  afterward, 
a  fallen  fence  and  gate  were  spied.  The  owner, 
found,  had  no  use  for  the  gate.  It  looked  as  if  it 
would  fit  the  gap  in  the  stone  wall.  And  so  we  tri- 
umphantly carried  it  home,  and  it  was  not  only 
found  to  be  a  perfect  fit  in  width,  but  its  hinges  were 
precisely  the  kind  of  hinges  needed  for  the  sockets 
and  of  precisely  the  needful  size.  The  gate  needed 
to  be  turned  upside  down,  to  match  the  way  of 
swinging,  but  that  was  easily  done.  The  friend  as- 
sisted, and  gleefully  helped  to  saw  and  nail.  In  a 
little  while  an  ordinary  picket  gate  had  been  trans- 
formed into  one  with  diagonal  crosspieces,  to  look 
the  better  in  a  stone  wall,  and  the  thing  was  done. 

[78] 


ALTERING  THE  HOUSE 

After  a  while  it  came  to  us  that  another  problem 
was  to  be  solved.  The  inn  was  a  little  too  large. 
More  than  the  two  lower  stories  was  not  needed. 
But  to  lessen  the  roominess  it  was  not  necessary  to 
tear  anything  down.  A  partition  was  placed  across 
the  hall,  at  the  head  of  the  upper  flight  of  stairs,  shut- 
ting off  the  entire  third  floor  completely :  a  partition 
simply  constructed  by  setting  up  packing  frames 
which  had  been  on  screen  doors  shipped  from  the 
city.  The  frames  fitted  with  almost  no  trouble  at 
all.  They  were  easily  covered  with  a  few  hangings, 
giving  them  an  air  of  completeness.  And  there  was 
a  far  greater  sense  of  coziness,  and  a  house  easier  to 
keep  warm;  and  at  the  same  time,  by  a  convenient 
arrangement  of  doors,  we  were  still  able  to  go  into 
the  third  floor,  through  a  door  into  the  room  at 
the  head  of  the  stairs  and  from  that  room  into  the 
next,  and  so  around  the  screen,  and  thence,  if  desired, 
to  the  outlook.  The  original  builder  could  not 
have  made  it  more  ready  to  our  hand  in  this  re- 
spect. 

None  of  the  changes  were  difficult  of  achieve- 
ment, and  they  were  made  by  simple  methods  and 
with  no  great  outlay. 

And  now,  in  regard  to  this  inn  which  was  our 
home  and  no  longer  an  inn,  we  thought  of  those 

[79] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

words  of  good  omen  of  old  Doctor  Johnson :  "There 
is  nothing  which  has  yet  been  contrived  by  man,  by 
which  so  much  happiness  is  produced  as  by  a  good 
tavern  or  inn." 


[80] 


CHAPTER  V 

SOME    EARLY   ACQUISITIONS 

THE  house  altered  into  readiness,  we  prepared 
to  furnish  it.  And  it  seemed  that  it  would 
be  an  excellent  thing  to  have  each  of  the 
rooms  furnished  in  a  different  style:  one  Heppel- 
white,  one  Empire,  one  Chippendale,  one  Sheraton, 
and  so  on;  or  at  least  that  the  prevailing  furniture 
in  each  room  should  be  of  the  same  style.  But  that 
would  be  impossible  for  us  to  carry  out  with  any- 
thing like  completeness.  It  could  be  done  only  with 
free  expenditure  of  money  and  time  unless  there 
should  be  exceptional  opportunities.  But  it  was 
well  to  have  such  a  scheme  in  mind  as  an  ideal,  to  be 
adopted  as  far  as  possible  whenever  opportunity 
could  be  made. 

In  any  case,  no  piece  of  furniture  should  be  se- 

[81] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

cured  not  proper  in  design  and  age,  except  in  those 
few  cases  of  indispensable  need  where  a  less  desira- 
ble piece  should  be  used  until  precisely  the  right 
thing  could  be  found;  and  then  we  should  promptly 
get  rid  of  the  offending  substitute. 

The  floors  were  to  be  bare  if  they  could  not  be 
correctly  covered.  Good  hand-loom  Oriental  rugs 
of  satisfactory  vegetable  dyes  fit  any  date  and  go 
with  any  style  of  furniture;  and  this  whether  the 
rugs  are .  old  or  of  modern  make.  But  the  color 
scheme  must  always  be  kept  in  mind.  Fur  rugs  and 
skins  go  admirably  with  Colonial  furniture.  Braided 
rugs  are  a  charming  survival  of  a  past  industry,  and, 
especially  if  they  are  made  with  thoughtfulness  as 
to  size  and  color,  are  very  effective  in  many  a  place. 
Rag-carpet  rugs  are  also  good,  if  of  a  predominant 
color  to  go  with  the  color  tone  of  the  room.  It  is  not 
always  realized  how  much,  in  general  effectiveness, 
depends  on  the  color.  For  braided  rugs,  or  rag-car- 
pet rugs,  there  is  always  some  weaver  or  braider  to 
be  found  who  will  be  delighted  to  have  intelligent 
co-operation  and  who  will  carefully  make  just  the 
kind  of  rug  one  wishes. 

At  the  sides  of  the  hall,  midway  in  its  length,  and 
opposite  the  side  recess  in  which  is  the  stairway,  are 
four  fluted  pilasters,  from  which  spring  arches,  in- 

[82] 


SOME  EARLY  ACQUISITIONS 

closing  a  square  with  groined  and  vaulted  ceiling. 
From  the  centre  of  this  vaulting  we  hung  a  chande- 
lier which  deserves  its  name;  for  it  is  for  candles 
only,  of  which  it  holds  the  Colonial  number  of  thir- 
teen. It  is  painted  buff,  with  black  trimmings,  and 
has  oval  reflectors  and  graceful  sconces.  It  is  of 
iron  and  tin,  and  is  about  three-quarters  of  a  century 
old. 

Just  inside  the  door  is  a  mirror  with  a  mahogany 
frame,  three  feet  and  a  half  by  one  and  a  half, 
straight- topped,  and  with  slightly  projecting  cornice. 
It  is  of  the  general  type  of  mirror  of  from  eighty  to  a 
hundred  and  twenty-five  years  ago,  and  is  itself 
about  a  century  old. 

Until  the  sixteenth  century,  the  woman  who  would 
hold  up  the  mirror  to  Nature  had  to  hold  up  one  of 
metal,  for  glass  mirrors  did  not  come  in  until  then, 
and  they  were  introduced  by  the  Venetians.  In 
England  glass  mirrors  were  not  made  until  a  little 
more  than  two  hundred  years  ago — the  ever-delight- 
ful Pepys  tells  of  a  looking-glass  sent  to  the  wife  of 
Charles  the  Second  by  the  Queen  of  France — but, 
as  glass  mirrors  were  undoubtedly  in  use  in  America 
before  the  era  of  English  manufacture,  they  must 
have  been  of  Continental,  and  probably  Italian, 
make. 

[85] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

Our  mirror  has  the  effective  pineapple  ornament, 
the  emblem  of  hospitality,  which  makes  it  the  more 
fitting  for  a  piece  of  furniture  beside  the  door.  Be- 
low the  pineapple,  on  either  side,  is  the  carved  pillar, 
with  twisted-rope  design,  ending  at  the  bottom  in  a 
tassel. 

There  is  a  narrow  strip  of  wood  across  the  upper 
part  of  the  mirror,  dividing  the  inclosed  space  into 
two  parts.  This  division  was  introduced  in  early 
days  from  the  impossibility  of  making  single  pieces 
of  glass  as  large  as  was  desired;  it  was  long  impossi- 
ble to  make  a  piece  wider  or  longer  than  four  feet; 
but  even  after  the  art  of  glass-making  was  better 
understood  the  practice  was  continued  from  the  be- 
lief that  the  crosspiece  was  necessary  to  a  proper  ap- 
pearance. It  was  from  this  reason  that  mirrors  of 
the  size  and  period  of  that  in  our  hall  are  in  two 
pieces. 

The  mirror  was  discovered  in  a  barn,  and  was  en- 
tirely without  glass.  It  was  thickly  marked  by 
flies;  thickly,  as  only  a  thing  can  be  which  has  long 
hung  in  a  screenless,  not  neat,  kitchen  of  the  coun- 
try. Probably  the  farm-hands  had  used  it,  for 
many  years,  as  long  as  a  broken  piece  of  glass  re- 
mained in  the  corner.  Then,  when  that  fragment 
disappeared,  the  mirror  was  thrown  into  the  barn; 

[86] 


Old  Mahogany  Mirrors 

i  Veneer  and  gilt ;  and  of  a  shape  preceding  Empire.  2  Carved  mantel-mirror,  late  eighteenth 
century.  3  Empire ;  with  twisted  rope  pilasters  ending  in  rosettes.  4  Empire ;  with  twisted  rope, 
tassel,  and  pineapple.  Bought  for  thirty-five  cents 


SOME  EARLY  ACQUISITIONS 

saved  from  complete  destruction  by  a  dim  idea  of 
some  time  repairing  it. 

It  cost  us,  misused  and  shattered  as  it  was,  pre- 
cisely thirty-five  cents! 

Being  of  beautiful  mahogany,  although  the 
beauty  was  hidden  by  dirt,  it  was  easily  cleaned  and 
polished. 

And  this  matter  of  misuse  and  discolor  points  out, 
what  the  collector  early  learns,  that  neither  color 
nor  previous  condition  of  servitude  prevents  a  piece 
from  being  desirable. 

There  is  a  curious  point  about  this  frame,  common 
to  numerous  other  old  frames,  and  typical  of  the 
time  when  artisans  had  personal  pride  in  each  piece 
of  work.  The  topmost  band  of  the  cornice  of  the 
frame  is  not,  like  all  the  rest  of  the  frame,  of  mahog- 
any. It  is  of  rich-looking  cherry.  And  the  reason 
was  long  ago  explained  to  us  by  an  old  cabinet- 
maker who  had  learned  some  of  the  secrets  and  ways 
of  the  past  direct  from  old-time  workers.  Mahog- 
any, beautiful  as  it  is,  would,  in  the  opinion  of  some, 
be  too  dark  for  effectiveness  at  the  top  of  a  frame. 
There,  brilliant  relief  was  sought  for,  to  bring  out 
the  color  and  design  and  lines  of  all.  And  in 
consequence  a  moulding  of  cherry  was  often  used  as 
the  surmounting  piece.  . 

[89] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

There  being  no  glass  in  the  mirror,  it  was  neces- 
sary to  remedy  that  defect,  and  two  pieces  of  beveled 
glass  were  put  in.  Nor  is  this  anachronistic,  though 
many  claim  that  beveling  has  no  place  in  old-fash- 
ioned mirrors.  It  is  curious  how  widespread  is  that 
idea.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  beveled  glass  was  long 
ago  made  by  the  Venetians,  and  Venetian  glass- 
makers  were  fetched  to  England,  two  hundred  years 
ago,  to  teach  this  branch  of  the  art,  among  others,  to 
English  workers. 

Our  mirror  has  the  small  rosettes  on  the  upper  cor- 
ners, as  was  customary;  but  they  are  of  wood,  in- 
stead of,  as  some  are,  of  brass.  It  does  not  have  the 
drop-acorn  ornaments,  as  do  several  old  mirrors  of 
the  vicinity. 

Many  mirrors  of  the  period  reaching  from  the  late 
seventeen-eighties  to  the  end  of  the  first  quarter  of 
the  nineteenth  century  are  known  as  Constitution 
mirrors,  and  are  surmounted  by  the  eagle,  which 
sprang  into  popularity  on  becoming  our  national 
bird.  Many  of  these  are  beautiful  specimens  and 
for  that  reason  have  been  freely  reproduced;  so 
freely  that  the  collector  must  be  specially  on  his 
guard  or  else  he  will  acquire  a  replica  instead  of^an 
original. 

This  particular  mirror  that  we  are  describing  has 

[90] 


SOME  EARLY  ACQUISITIONS 

the  square-lined  top,  without  the  eagle.  There  may 
have  been,  originally,  in  the  upper  section,  some  pic- 
ture instead  of  glass.  Numerous  mirrors  of  that 
time  were  made  with  rudely  pictured  rural  scenes  or 
battle  pieces. 

Beneath  the  mirror  stands  a  small,  square,  Hep- 
pel  white  table,  with  two  drawers ;  a  table  that  looks 
well  in  that  location,  and  is  also  exceedingly  useful, 
for  a  small  brass  salver  stands  on  top  and  the 
drawers  are  convenient  for  gloves  and  other  articles. 

The  question  of  pictures  came  next.  They  must 
harmonize  with  the  hall  and  with  the  furniture  of 
the  olden  time,  and  they  must  look  well. 

More  pictures  were  used  in  the  past  than  is  gen- 
erally supposed.  Many  an  ancient  house  had  tap- 
estry, many  a  house  had  pictured  wallpaper ;  but,  on 
the  other  hand,  paintings  have  been  in  high  repute 
for  centuries,  and  great  numbers  were  made;  the 
family  portrait  was  an  institution;  and  many  prints 
and  engravings  and  etchings  were  highly  esteemed 
and  commonly  owned  in  the  eighteenth  century. 

Thomas  Jefferson  had,  at  Monticello,  one  hun- 
^red  and  twenty  pictures  of  one  kind  or  another, 
some  of  them  being  copies  of  the  great  masters. 
Washington  also  possessed  a  large  number  of  pic- 
tures, their  total  value  being  inventoried  at  a  little 

[90 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

over  two  thousand  dollars.  Other  men  of  Colonial 
times  had  similarly  large  numbers  of  pictures,  and 
many  are  therefore  still  to  be  found. 

Unless,  however,  one  has  sufficient  wealth  to  buy 
the  work  of  the  great  painters  of  the  past,  he  may 
not  care  to  have  only  such  pictures  as  ornamented 
the  walls  of,  say,  the  eighteenth  century.  But  one 
may  find  good  etchings,  or  other  pictures,  made  at 
the  present  day,  which  represent  subjects  of  the 
past,  or  he  may  find  pictures  whose  date  is  immater- 
ial through  being  such  as  are  of  any  time  and  all 
time. 

For  this  old  hall  we  were  fortunately  able  to  sup- 
ply a  series  of  prints  representing  scenes  and  cities 
of  the  Napoleonic  wars,  these  being  steel  engravings 
made  in  the  long  ago,  printed  in  colors,  and  acquired 
by  bequest  instead  of  quest,  after  long  possession  by 
older  hands. 

Then,  to  complete,  there  are  a  few  other  old-time 
prints — one  of  them  of  particular  interest  for  this 
building,  with  its  association  with  Washington  Irv- 
ing, as  it  is  of  Aston  Hall,  the  original  of  the  hospit- 
able old  English  house  which  Irving  describes  under 
the  name  of  Bracebridge. 

The  Napoleonic  series  and  the  others  being  all  of 
a  size,  all  framed  alike  in  black  passe-partout,  all 

[92] 


Metal  face  and  phases  of  i 


The  wooden-works  clock 


Eighteenth  Century  "  Bonnet-top  "  Clocks 


SOME  EARLY  ACQUISITIONS 

accurately  spaced  and  all  put  at  the  same  height, 
serve  to  accent  the  general  effect  of  the  hall,  both  as 
to  design  and  age. 

On  one  side  was  placed  the  wooden-works,  seven- 
day,  grandfather's  clock.  There  are  some  old  grand- 
father's clocks  that  have  chimes  for  the  playing  of 
airs,  others  that  mark  the  tides,  the  phases  of  the 
moon,  and  not  only  the  hours  but  the  day  and  the 
month;  so  that  a  simple  tall  clock,  without  such 
things,  is  not  the  greatest  prize  possible.  But  it 
being  unexceptionable  so  far  as  it  goes,  we  deemed 
it  best  to  secure  it  when  we  had  the  opportunity,  for 
it  does  not  prevent  our  some  day  getting  a  more 
elaborate  one.  Meanwhile,  the  sober  ticking,  as  of 
a  Time  that  marches  instead  of  flies,  is  an  agreeable 
sound.  To  awake  in  the  night  and  hear  it  gives  an 
•"impression  as  if  everything  is  going  on  as  it  ought. 
And  it  is  pleasant,  returning  after  an  absence  of  a 
few  days  and  opening  the  house,  to  hear  it  sonor- 
ously tick  out  a  welcome. 

It  is  natural  to  think  of  the  grandfather's  clock  as 
being  of  an  older  type  than  the  clock  which  has  nei- 
ther long  pendulum  nor  long  case.  But  that  is  a 
mistake.  Grandfather's  clocks  did  not  come  in  till 
some  time  after  this  country  began  to  be  settled,  and 
before  they  appeared  there  were  in  use  here  both 

[95] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

clocks  with  weights  and  clocks  with  spiral  springs. 
The  pendulum  dates  back  only  some  two  hundred 
and  fifty  years ;  before  that  time  a  balance  control 
was  used.  And  not  until  after  the  day  of  long  pen- 
dulums did  the  day  of  long  clock-cases  come,  and 
then  it  came  by  evolution,  because  they  were  needed. 
At  first  the  long  pendulums  were  used  on  the  old 
"wag-at-the-walls,"  as  they  were  termed,  and  to 
protect  the  pendulums,  which  were  frequently 
stopped  or  broken,  the  making  of  tall  cases  began. 
There  were  few  grandfather's  clocks  before  the  be- 
ginning of  the  eighteenth  century. 

With  clocks  which,  like  ours,  have  the  weight 
cords  running  over  narrow-grooved  pulleys,  there  is 
likely  to  be  difficulty  in  finding  strong  enough  cord. 
The  chains,  used  on  many  clocks,  cannot  be  used  on 
these.  After  our  weights  once  came  down  with  a 
great  crashing  in  the  middle  of  the  night  we  set 
about  finding  the  right  cord,  and  did  so,  at  length, 
in  a  fishing-tackle  shop  where  there  was  line  spe- 
cially made  for  the  holding  of  tarpon  or  some  other 
wild  creature  of  the  seas. 

The  cost  of  the  clock,  twelve  dollars,  was  very 
low,  even  for  one  so  simple  as  this.  For  the  elabor- 
ate ones,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  that  high  prices 
are  often  asked,  when  we  consider  some  of  the  prices 

[96] 


SOME  EARLY  ACQUISITIONS 

of  the  past.  None  were  low ;  and  an  advertisement 
in  a  New  York  paper  of  1816  tells  of  a  tall  clock 
with  musical  attachments  which  was  to  be  had  for 
thirteen  hundred  dollars!  And  a  New  York  ad- 
vertisement of  some  fifteen  years  earlier  arouses 
wondering  interest,  for  it  is  of  a  clock,  declared  to 
have  been  the  property  of  Louis  the  Sixteenth, 
which,  although  it  had  cost  five  thousand  livres, 
could  be  purchased  for  five  hundred  dollars !  Was 
it  genuine?  one  wonders.  Or  had  some  dealer 
even  then  acquired  the  reprehensible  habit  of  mis- 
representation? And  what  became  of  it  in  the  cen- 
tury that  has  since  passed? 

A  few  chairs  are  all  that  the  hall  needs ;  and  one  of 
them,  simple  though  it  is,  is  of  a  great  deal  of  char- 
acter. It  is  of  ash,  without  arms,  is  rush-bottomed, 
and  has  four  slats  across  the  back.  The  slats  are 
carefully  graduated  in  width  for  the  sake  of  effect, 
the  narrowest  being  at  the  bottom.  The  side-posts 
stand  absolutely  perpendicular,  from  top  to  bottom, 
with  an  odd  primness  of  effect,  but  the  four  slats  are 
on  a  light  and  swaying  bend  both  upward  and  back- 
ward. This  chair  was  made  nearly  a  hundred  years 
ago,  in  a  little  Pennsylvania  town,  and  stood  for 
forty  years  as  the  entry-chair  in  the  hall  of  a  Penn- 
sylvania lawyer.  There  are  also  chairs  of  this  type 

[97] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

that  are  made  with  five  slats  instead  of  four,  but 
they  are  much  more  rarely  found. 

A  chest  stands  near  one  end  of  the  hall,  a  low 
chest  of  black  leather  studded  with  brass  nails,  iron 
handled  and  lined  with  old  blue  paper.  It  is  a  cen- 
tury old,  was  made  at  Galashiels  in  Scotland,  and 
traveled  to  India  and  back  in  the  possession  of  a 
British  officer  who  served  in  the  old  wars  there; 
afterward  it  came  to  America. 

In  the  early  days,  chests  were  of  great  importance 
as  part  of  the  furniture  of  a  house,  being  used  for 
the  storage  of  linen  and  silver.  One  may  still  hope 
to  find  a  fine  chest  of  oak  or  dark  walnut  with  some- 
what of  ornamentation,  or  even  a  carved  and  painted 
old  chest  of  English  make.  It  would  be  unlikely, 
now,  to  find  one  of  the  corniced  marquetry  chests  of 
the  early  Dutch,  but  even  that  need  not  be  looked 
upon  as  altogether  impossible. 

At  the  farther  end  of  the  long  hall  is  the  door 
opening  into  the  room  with  the  big  fireplace,  and 
upon  this  door  is  placed  an  ancient  iron  knocker,  ac- 
quired through  the  chance  of  happening  to  pass  by 
an  old  house  in  the  heart  of  London,  literally  under 
the  shadow  of  Westminster,  as  the  old  house  was 
being  demolished.  The  demolition  had  reached  the 
first  floor;  in  half  an  hour  the  door  would  have  been 

[98] 


SOME  EARLY  ACQUISITIONS 

thrown  down;  but  the  offer  of  a  shilling  promptly  se- 
cured the  knocker,  with  bolts  and  all  complete. 

It  is  seldom  that  one  can  find  an  article  actually 
in  place,  in  that  sense;  but  it  is  always  highly  satis- 
factory to  find  old  furniture  in  use  in  the  house  that 
has  long  held  it;  or,  what  is  even  better,  for  the 
pieces  are  likely  to  be  better  preserved,  in  the  very 
house  where  they  were  long  used,  but  in  the  garret. 

And  one  of  the  ways  of  securing  things  at  the 
house  for  which  they  were  originally  bought  or  made 
is  to  attend  a  good  country  auction. 


[99] 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  COUNTRY  AUCTION 

THERE  is  fascination  in  the  very  thought  of  a 
country  auction.     Not,  indeed,  that  there  is 
always  something  to  be  picked  up,  but  that 
there  is  an  ever-present  possibility.     There  is  an  al- 
lurement in  the  very  sight  of  a  country  auction  bill, 
whether  it  be  tacked  on  the  oak  tree  at  the  watering 
trough  or  hung  on  a  string  in  the  village  store. 

Nor  is  this  merely  a  modern  idea.  Those  who 
like  to  know  that  in  their  quest  of  things  of  the  past 
they  are  following  in  the  footsteps  of  the  notable 
people  of  a  bygone  time,  will  not  only  remember 
that  auctions  have  long  been  held  in  high  esteem 
(they  are  as  old  as  the  Romans),  but  that  the  very 
Father  of  His  Country  went  one  day  to  an  auction 
at  the  breaking  up  of  a  neighbor's  establishment  in 
the  Potomac  region,  and  there  purchased  furniture 
to  the  value,  as  the  queerly  precise  old  record  has  it, 

[100] 


THE  COUNTRY  AUCTION 

of  one  hundred  and  sixty-nine  pounds,  twelve  shil- 
lings and  nine-pence!  That  Washington,  although 
he  bought  from  a  full  pocketbook  and  spent  a  lavish 
total,  was  not  able  to  resist  entirely  the  delight  of 
getting  things  at  as  good  a  bargain  as  possible,  and 
that  he  was  reluctantly  forced  upward  on  different 
purchases,  shilling  by  shilling  and  penny  by  penny, 
is  amusingly  apparent.  How  delightful  would  be  a 
full  and  accurate  account  of  his  behavior  and  his 
bidding  at  that  auction ! 

Nowadays,  in  many  districts,  when  an  auction 
impends,  handbills  are  distributed  to  every  little 
store  and  post-office  within  a  radius  of  some  ten 
miles  or  so,  and  tacked  upon  trees  at  cross-roads. 
Placed  thus  in  public  view,  the  bills  are  commented 
upon  by  the  critical  and  combined  intelligence  of  the 
neighborhood. 

The  important  announcements,  from  the  local 
viewpoint,  are  of  horses  and  cattle,  of  farming 
machiner^,  of  chickens  and  of  hay.  Yet  almost  al- 
ways, if  looked  for,  may  be  found  the  words,  tucked 
away  somewhere  down  toward  the  bottom,  "House- 
hold furniture."  Sometimes  the  descriptive  "old- 
fashioned"  accompanies  the  words.  Sometimes 
there  is  an  item  of  "coverlids  and  homespun  blan- 
kets." And  "coverlids  and  homespun"  are  likely 

[  101  ] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

to  portend  ancient  chests  of  drawers  and  Windsor 
chairs. 

The  auction  will  not  be  quite  so  promising  as  to 
results  if  the  house  is  near  a  summer  resort  or  any  of 
the  host  of  places  to  which  urban  dwellers  crowd 
during  the  distinctly  suburban  months.  And  yet 
this  does  not  make  so  much  difference  as  it  might,  for 
most  auctions  are  held  in  the  spring  or  fall,  before 
the  tide  has  set  from  the  city  or  after  it  has  ebbed 
cityward  again. 

Most  promising,  is  the  little  auction  where  the 
number  of  articles  is  small,  where  comparatively  few 
people  will  be  attracted,  and  where,  at  the  end  of  the 
little  handbills,  is  modestly  printed  the  announce- 
ment that  articles  sent  in  by  neighbors  will  be  dis- 
posed of  at  the  same  time. 

There  is  always  the  likelihood  that  such  an  an- 
nouncement will  fetch  to  the  light  of  an  auction- 
eer's day  the  single  pair  of  unused  andirons  from  the 
garret  of  the  aged  spinster,  the  rare  candlesticks 
which  some  old  settler  long  since  discarded  and  for- 
got, the  four-post  bed,  the  set  of  drawers,  or  some- 
thing else  equally  interesting,  which  inquiring  search 
would  not  have  revealed  but  which  the  owner  is  as 
glad  to  sell  as  you  are  to  buy.  It  is  astonishing  how 
many  old  pieces  are  put  away  and  forgotten  and  re- 
garded as  of  no  value;  and  on  the  other  hand,  it  is 
[102] 


THE  COUNTRY  AUCTION 

astonishing  at  how  much  beyond  even  the  city  prices 
some  of  the  country  dwellers  value  their  old-time 
articles.  To  buy  something  old  at  a  country  auction 
or  a  country  house,  having  behind  it  no  dealer's 
guarantee  of  quality  or  condition,  having  the  trouble 
and  expense  of  getting  it  home,  ought  properly  to 
carry  with  it  the  benefit  of  a  lower  price  than  for  an 
article  repaired  and  polished,  put  in  perfect  condi- 
tion, and  delivered. 

On  a  beautiful  October  day  we  set  forth  to  an 
auction  at  a  house  a  dozen  miles  off,  situated  eight 
miles  from  a  railroad  and  far  from  any  town.  We 
carried  our  luncheon,  and  oats  for  the  horse,  and 
were  equipped  for  results.  We  had  first  inter- 
viewed our  neighbors,  and  were  told  that  the  auc- 
tion was  held  because  of  the  death  of  an  aged 
woman,  long  occupant  of  an  ancient  house ;  that  her 
family  had  lived  and  died  there  for  a  hundred  and 
twenty-five  years;  that  there  were  only  distant  kin 
who  felt  no  personal  interest  in  either  the  house 
or  the  furniture ;  and  that  the  house  was  full  of  old- 
fashioned  things. 

And  so  we  went  brightly  on  through  the  bright 
October  day.  The  sun  was  cheerful  and  warm,  and 
the  air  was  a  caress. 

We  approached  the  house.  It  was  venerable  and 
wind-beaten  and  gray,  standing  high  up  toward  the 

[103] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

top  of  a  hill,  with  the  old  road  sweeping  by  its  door. 
Its  ancient  shingled  sides  told  of  multitude  of  an- 
tique treasures  within.  Wagons  filled  with  coun- 
try folk  were  converging  on  the  spot  from  all  direc- 
tions. It  was  assuredly  going  to  be  a  notable 
auction ! 

We  reached  the  place,  and  the  horse  was  tied  to  a 
fence  along  with  a  long  line  of  other  horses.  In  the 
front  yard  was  a  lot  of  kitchen  material :  wash-tubs, 
glass  fruit  jars,  ironing  boards,  clothes-pins,  pie-tins, 
frying  pans,  and  a  medley  of  similar  things,  little 
and  big.  There  were  men  and  women  poking 
about.  Other  men  and  women,  gathered  in  knots, 
were  enjoying  the  reunion  that  comes  with  every 
auction — for  an  auction  in  the  country  brings  many 
people  together  for  perhaps  the  only  time  in  weeks 
or  months. 

We  were  still  elated.  This  exhibit  of  simple  ar- 
ticles on  the  grass  was  to  make  it  unnecessary  for  the 
auctioneer  to  lead  the  throng  into  the  kitchen  and 
cellar  on  his  course  through  the  house. 

We  went  to  the  door.  A  grim-visaged  woman 
stood  on  guard.  Glancing  beyond  her,  one  could 
see  only  a  great  bareness.  "Every  thing  's  out  there 
in  the  yard !"  she  snapped. 

"But  the  furniture?" 

[104] 


THE  COUNTRY  AUCTION 

"There  ain't  any." 

"But  the  bill  said—" 

"It 's  all  sold." 

And  such  was  actually  the  case.  Every  thing  ex- 
cept a  few  stray  worthless  pieces  had  been  disposed 
of  at  private  sale,  or  had  been  taken  away  by  the 
relatives,  who,  we  learned,  had  swooped  down  and 
seized  everything  worth  taking,  although  they  had 
not  even  seen  the  house  or  their  aged  relative  for 
many  years. 

Needless  to  say,  we  did  not  wait  for  the  sale,  al- 
though the  auctioneer  was  clearing  his  voice  and  be- 
ginning to  gather  the  people  together.  They  were 
not  all  disappointed,  of  course.  There  are  often  ex- 
tremely desirable  bargains  to  be  had  in  the  matter 
of  glass  jars  and  ironing  boards  and  frying  pans. 
And  for  ourselves — well,  it  was  a  beautiful  day  for 
a  drive,  and  it  is  illuminating  and  mildly  chastening 
to  learn  thaV  all  expectations  do  not  materialize  and 
that  every  country  auction  is  not  a  treasure  field. 

But  there  was  recently  a  sale  which  furnished  pe- 
culiarly good  examples  of  the  possibilities  that  lurk 
within  the  country  auction,  and  at  the  same  time 
showed  what  wonderful  prizes  one  may  at  any  mo- 
ment secure.  The  house  whose  furniture  was  sold 
out  was  built  before  the  Revolution,  and  the  roll  of 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

its  guests  included  names  famous  in  our  history, 
such  as  Alexander  Hamilton  and  General  Montgom- 
ery and  John  Jay,  and  one  whose  entertainment  was 
matter  of  condolence  as  well  as  respect,  General  Bur- 
goyne.  It  was  peculiarly  a  house  from  which  no 
collector  could  ever  have  hoped  to  secure  a  single 
article,  any  more  than  from  a  museum.  Yet  all  the 
belongings  were  recently  sold  at  auction ! 

And  chief  among  the  articles  of  interest,  finer  even 
than  the  set  of  two  hundred  pieces  of  old  blue  Can- 
ton china,  was  a  set  of  Chippendale  chairs,  twelve 
in  number. 

These  twelve  chairs,  beautifully  designed  and 
made,  and  two  of  them  with  arms,  were  used  at  the 
time  of  General  Burgoyne's  reception  there,  an  hon- 
ored prisoner,  after  his  surrender  at  Saratoga  and  on 
his  way  toward  the  coast.  And  there  is  a  curious 
point  about  them.  Although  distinctively  Chippen- 
dale in  design,  and  in  the  unmistakable  central  splat, 
they  show  a  Dutch  influence  in  that  the  top  line  of 
the  back  merges  into  the  side  lines  without  a  break- 
giving  the  effect,  that  is,  as  if  of  a  single  piece, 
rounded  and  bent,  instead  of  one  piece  at  each  side 
and  one  at  the  top.  Chairs  with  this  peculiarity  are 
usually  known  as  Dutch  chairs,  but  in  this  case  the 
Chippendale  characteristics  far  outweigh  the  Dutch 

[106] 


THE  COUNTRY  AUCTION 

and  the  beauty  of  design  has  been  but  slightly  less- 
ened. 

There  was  an  auction  sale  of  a  different  class,  not 
at  all  a  notable  one,  just  a  few  months  ago,  only 
eight  miles  from  our  home,  at  which  there  were  op- 
portunities such  as  one  can  ordinarily  only  dream  of. 

Unfortunately  we  did  not  go,  being  informed  by 
some  who  ought  to  have  known  better  that  there 
was  nothing  of  much  interest  there.  Particulars  of 
the  sale  came  later,  from  a  friend ;  and  here,  literally 
set  down,  are  some  of  the  prices  at  which  sales  were 
actually  made,  only  fifty  miles  from  New  York. 

A  fine  and  ancient  armoire,  of  dark  oak,  heavy, 
dignified,  impressive,  went  for  six  dollars.  Good 
armchairs,  the  kind  which  Sheraton  himself  called 
"fancy"  chairs,  light  and  delicate,  painted,  and  with 
touches  of  gil^  sold  for  thirty-five  cents  each.  Some 
mahogany  chairs,  of  late  Empire,  were  bid  off  at  ten 
cents  apiece  less.  An  admirable  mahogany  chest  of 
drawers,  with  oval  brasses,  was  knocked  down  for 
one  dollar!  A  plain  chest  of  drawers  of  cherry, 
with  wooden  knobs  on  the  drawers,  was  bid  in  for 
twenty-five  cents. 

Thus  it  is  that  the  country  auction  tantalizes  with 
its  potentialities. 

One  day  we  set  off  to  an  old  house  upon  one  of  the 

[  109  ] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

oldest  roads  of  the  countryside,  a  thoroughfare  fa- 
miliar to  the  troops  of  the  Revolution. 

But  we  found  it  a  place  where  the  penalty  of  too 
much  prosperity  had  been  paid.  Generation  after 
generation  had  thrown  away  the  old  and  purchased 
new.  There  were  but  few  things  in  the  house  for 
which  a  collector  could  care,  and  for  those  few  the 
prices  were  run  up  by  the  dealers,  and  then,  when 
they  would  go  no  higher,  by  a  man  who  had  come 
with  apparently  unlimited  money  and  the  intention 
of  procuring  a  household  furnishing  of  antiques. 

But  the  auction  was  an  amusing  one.  The  auc- 
tioneer, genial,  loud-voiced,  ready-witted,  knew  al- 
most everyone  in  a  first-name  intimacy.  As  he  led 
the  way  from  room  to  room,  he  interspersed  the  sell- 
ing with  jests  and  pleasantries.  One  woman  had 
recently  married  a  second  husband,  and  he  was  al- 
ways calling  her,  with  intent  to  embarrass,  by  her 
earlier  married  name.  It  so  happened  that  her  buy- 
ings  of  the  prosaically  useful  were  many,  and  it  gave 
the  auctioneer  the  frequent  opportunity  to  call  out 
to  his  clerk  to  set  the  sale  down  to  "Mrs.  Brown." 
No  matter  how  often  he  did  this,  she  was  each  time 
genuinely  taken  off  her  guard,  so  deeply  had  the  sec- 
ond marriage  impressed  her.  And  so,  to  his  cue  of 
"Mrs.  Brown,"  she  invariably  gave  her  agitated  con- 

[no] 


THE  COUNTRY  AUCTION 

tradiction,  "No,  no,  no !  Mrs.  Jenkins !"  To  the  in- 
tense amusement  of  the  crowd. 

In  one  room  was  a  fine  old  bellows.  A  number 
examined  it  appreciatively.  The  man  who  had 
come  prepared  to  bid  for  everything  openly  admired 
it.  It  was  of  graceful  shape,  rather  large,  heavily 
bossed  upon  one  side  and  showing  a  generous  wealth 
of  brass  nails  on  its  margins,  and  it  possessed  an  un- 
usually long  and  heavy  and  business-like  brass  nose. 
Naturally,  it  showed  hard  usage,  and  its  leathers 
showed  holes.  None  the  less,  it  was  a  distinct  po- 
tential prize,  one  of  the  very  few  possibilities. 

But  the  auctioneer,  when  he  picked  it  up,  saw  only 
the  holes  in  the  leathers;  and  so,  to  make  a  "lot" 
with  it,  he  held  up  at  the  same  time  a  spittoon  of 
mottled  brown  crockery,  past  its  prime.  "How  much 
am  I  bid  for  {he  lot?"  he  asked. 

There  was  a  sudden  chill.  All  at  once  it  seemed 
that  nobody  wanted  a  fine  bellows,  in  spittoon  en- 
vironment. To  the  admirers  of  the  bellows,  includ- 
ing him  of  the  plethoric  purse,  it  seemed  that  they 
were  asked  to  bid  not  on  the  bellows  but  upon  its 
obnoxious  associate. 

"Ten  cents!"  There  was  no  other  bid,  and  the 
bellows  was  ours. 

"No;  I  don't  want  the  other;"  and  the  auctioneer 

[in] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

smiled  appreciatively  and  handed  the  spittoon,  as  a 
gift,  to  a  patriarchal  farm-laborer  in  the  front  row, 
who  bore  it  off  in  toothless  glee. 

It  mattered  not,  now,  that  to  the  very  rich  had 
gone  the  very  little  of  braided  rug  and  acorn  mirror 
and  quaint  old  chair  which  the  sale  had  afforded. 
Our  bellows  for  ten  cents! — a  bellows  for  which  we 
had  been  prepared  to  bid  high — had  redeemed  the 
day.  It  mattered  not  that  there  were  holes  in  the 
leathers.  By  chance,  by  the  fate  that  watches  over 
true  lovers  of  the  old,  there  was  a  piece  of  morocco  at 
home  of  size  sufficient  to  make  new  leathers  for  it, 
and  it  took  but  an  hour  to  do  the  work. 

Considered  simply  as  a  money  proposition,  it 
would  have  been  more  economical  to  purchase  a  bel- 
lows in  the  regular  way,  instead  of  taking  two  per- 
sons and  a  horse,  and  an  entire  day,  for  a  cross-coun- 
try drive  and  an  auction  sale.  But  as  it  is  we  have 
a  particularly  fine  bellows,  which  reminds  us  of  a 
fine  old  house  of  the  olden  time  and  of  the  varied 
amusing  experiences  of  a  pleasant  day. 

At  this  same  auction  we  missed  an  unusual  oppor- 
tunity. A  great  lot  of  carpet  was  put  up  in  one  lot : 
ingrain,  of  good  quality,  and  not  much  worn,  but  of 
such  colors  and  designs  as  to  displease  everybody 
through  their  glaring  gaudiness.  The  entire  lot  was 
[112] 


THE  COUNTRY  AUCTION 

knocked  down  for  a  trivial  sum,  we  looking  on  indif- 
ferently. And  not  until  afterward  did  it  occur  to 
us  that  the  carpet  should  have  been  bought;  not  to 
use  as  a  carpet,  but  to  be  cut  into  strips,  and  made, 
by  the  local  weaver,  into  rugs ;  for  it  could  have  been 
done  in  such  a  way  as  to  lose  all  the  gaudiness  and 
make  the  rugs  of  softly  warm  colors  and  modestly 
attractive  effect. 

All  good  auctions  are  not  in  the  country.  There 
are  some  city  auction  sales  which  it  is  a  satisfaction, 
and  perhaps  a  pleasure,  to  look  in  upon :  auctions  at 
those  shops  which  make  a  specialty  of  handling  the 
antique.  For  at  such  places  there  is  always  the  pos- 
sibility of  seeing  just  the  piece  you  wish,  and  not 
a  copy  but  a  valuable  original.  Naturally,  in  the 
large  cities  theje  are  likely  to  be  so  many  people 
present  as  to  make  low  prices  unusual  for  desirable 
articles.  But  the  prices  are  often  very  fair. 

There  are,  too,  sales  in  the  city  at  the  breaking  up 
of  homes;  it  may  be  because  a  family  has  died  out, 
it  may  be  from  the  same  reason  that  caused  the  Sed- 
ley  sale  at  which  Becky  Sharp  was  present  and  where 
the  well-intentioned  Dobbin  purchased  a  piano,  and 
where  there  were  also  disposed  of  certain  magnificent 
mahogany  tables. 

It  has  come  to  be  rather  the  custom,  however — at 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

least  in  New  York — for  the  sale  of  the  furnishings 
of  an  old  city  home  to  be  held  at  one  of  the  principal 
auction-rooms.  For  the  sale  of  special  collections  in 
this  manner,  catalogues  are  printed,  often  illustrated 
ones,  and  the  articles  are  on  preliminary  exhibition 
for  several  days. 

It  is  worth  remembering  that,  at  the  large  shops, 
the  end  of  the  day  is  likely  to  be  the  best.  The  auc- 
tioneer is  tired,  and  begins  to  lessen  his  attempts  to 
raise  prices;  and  most  of  the  people  are  restless  and 
beginning,  more  or  less  actively,  to  think  of  home; 
many  are  actually  leaving.  Drop  into  the  rooms 
just  for  those  final  psychic  moments,  and  you  may 
"learn  something  to  your  advantage,"  as  advertise- 
ments have  it. 

It  was  at  such  an  hour  in  the  late  afternoon  that 
six  beautiful  old  blue  dinner-plates  were  put  up — 
plates  worth  at  least  a  dollar  each,  and  at  ordinary 
prices  two  or  three  dollars.  There  was  no  competi- 
tion, not  a  single  opposing  bid  following  the  opening 
tentative  one,  and  the  plates  came  to  us  for  ten  cents 
apiece ;  and  this  in  a  sale  at  a  fashionable  shop  where 
the  wealthy  congregate.  It  was  at  such  a  time  that 
a  dark  blue  teapot  came  to  us  for  eighty  cents,  for 
which  a  dealer,  who  had  missed  noticing  that  it  was 
up,  at  once  offered  us  five  dollars. 

[116] 


THE  COUNTRY  AUCTION 

It  is  not  always  that  purchases  can  be  made  for  a 
little.  The  price  that  lies  in  antique  buys,  as  Hood 
would  have  expressed  it,  has  been  the  undoing  of 
many  a  pocketbook.  But  it  is  interesting  to  know 
that  such  low  prices  are  possible  and  that  at  no  time 
need  the  buyer  of  moderate  means  go  to  a  high  ex- 
treme. 

One  of  the  most  charming  of  the  Elian  essays  ex- 
patiates on  the  pleasure  which  accompanies  the  pur- 
chase that  is  a  triumph.  A  purchase  is  but  a  pur- 
chase when  there  is  a  plethoric  purse,  declares  Elia, 
and  he  lovingly  turns  over  and  over — his  immediate 
text  is  the  gathering  of  some  old  china — the  thought 
of  the  keen  pleasure  that  accompanies  the  purchase 
exultant. 


[117] 


CHAPTER  VII 

ON    RAMBLING   DRIVING  TRIPS 

DRIVING  into  Massachusetts,  one  day,  just 
over  the  line  from  New  York  State,  and  de- 
scending a  long  hill  into  the  depths  of  a  nar- 
row valley,  we  came  upon  a  fine  old  house,  of  sun- 
bleached  white,  set  back  from  the  road  among  old 
vines  and  bushes  and  with  great  maples  shading  the 
broad  and  generous  doorway.  A  modest  sign,  "For 
Rent,"  was  nailed  upon  the  gatepost.  The  whole 
place  had  an  air  of  repose  and  the  charm  of 
days  gone  by.  Leaving  the  horse,  we  went 
in  through  the  gate.  What  a  paradise  for 
a  home!  Many  miles  from  a  railroad;  and 
what  an  air  the  place  had!  We  walked  up  the 
path,  with  the  grass  hanging  over  it  from  the  tangled 
lawn.  There  was  an  old  portico  with  seats  on  either 
side.  There  was  a  knocker  on  the  door.  The  door 
was  shabby.  The  sidelights  gave  a  glimpse  of  the 

[us] 


ON  RAMBLING  DRIVING  TRIPS 

hall,  with  wallpaper  in  mottled  marble  blocks.  An 
old  clock  stood  at  the  bend  of  the  stairs.  Two  green 
Windsor  chairs  were  in  the  hall. 

The  caretaker,  an  old  farm-hand  from  a  neighbor- 
ing field,  came  in  at^the  gate.  He  gave  us  the  key 
and  sat  down  on  the  doorstep  to  wait  and  smoke. 

We  went  through  the  house.  There  were  old  set- 
tles by  the  kitchen  hearth.  There  were  two  four- 
poster  beds.  There  were  old  splint-bottom  chairs. 
There  were  candlesticks  of  pewter  and  brass,  and 
iron  fire-dogs. 

The  whole  house  had  a  scattering  of  furniture, 
but  was  far  from  completely  furnished.  Yet  there 
was  enough  for  the  suggestion  of  a  fascinating  home. 

We  were  completely  carried  away  with  our  find  of 
this  old  house,  apparently  forsaken  by  its  owners 
and  awaiting  a  new  home-maker.  We  went  back  to 
the  door.  The  old  man  rose  up  and  after  a  moment 
of  hesitation  grinned.  Just  why  he  should  grin  was 
not  apparent,  but  that  it  was  from  a  sense  of  some 
subtle  joke  which  he  was  enjoying  was  quite  clear. 

"What  place  is  this  ?" 

"The  old  W place." 

"How  long  since  it  has  been  occupied^" 

"Nine  years.  And  last  spring,  Mr.  G ,  the 

present  owner,  fixed  it  up." 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

"Is  any  of  the  furniture  to  be  sold,  or  is  the  house 
to  be  rented  furnished?" 

But  the  man  was  a  Yankee.  "Do  you  want  to 
rent  or  do  you  want  to  buy?"  he  asked. 

We  were  not  Yankees,  but  he  was  answered  with 
another  question:  "What  is  the  rent?" 

"Six — hundred — dollars — for — the — season !"  he 
lined  out  slowly,  as  if  he  were  relishingly  rolling  the 
money  under  his  tongue. 

We  were  surprised,  and  said  so,  for  we  knew 
something  of  rents  in  neighborhoods  far  from  a  rail- 
way. 

"Yes.  Six— hundred— dollars!  That  's  what 
he  's  looking  to  get.  You  're  only  nine  miles  from 
Lenox  over  that  mountain,  though  it  5s  thirteen  by 
road." 

He  looked  at  us.     "Do  you  want  to  rent  it?" 

"No."  We  smiled.  We  knew  that  there  was  to 
be  some  explanation. 

"Well,  I'm  to  give  anybody  that  looks  at  it  one  of 
these." 

With  that  he  shoved  out,  with  a  motion  like  that 
of  breaking  coal  with  a  poker,  a  card;  and  the  card 
was  that  of  a  well-known  dealer  in  antiques  on 
Fourth  Avenue. 

It  was  all  plain.  It  did  not  need  the  garrulous 
[120] 


ON  RAMBLING  DRIVING  TRIPS 

explanation  of  how  the  dealer  had  leased  the  old 
house,  bought  what  old  things  he  could  in  the  vicin- 
ity, and  sent  out  others  from  his  New  York  shop. 

The  old  caretaker  walked  down  to  the  hitching- 
post  with  us.  "You  're  the  fourth  ones  to  look  at 
it.  Lenox  don't  seem  to  come  over  very  fast.  I 
helped  put  up  those  beds  and  balance  that  clock  on 
that  turning  step  of  the  stairs.  It  would  n't  hold 
the  fourth  corner  of  the  clock,  so  I  put  a  stick  under 

it.  Yes,  the  W s  are  all  dead.  The  house  has 

been  for  rent  for  seventy-two  dollars  a  year  for  year 
after  year,  and  now  this  New  Yorker  has  it  and  puts 
in  these  old  traps.  Don't  you  want  to  buy  any  of 
them?  The  o&er  folks  took  off  chairs  and  candle- 
sticks. The  price  is  pasted  on  'em.  Ninety  dollars 
for  that  clock.  It  's  pine  and  won't  go.  Fifteen 
dollars  apiece  for  those  old  green  chairs ;  the  price  is 
on  'em  under  the  seat.  A  hundred  dollars  for  the 
dining-table.  No?  You  are  the  beatenest  folks! 
You  don't  seem  to  care  for  these  things.  You  came 
over  the  wrong  mountain.  The  folks  from  over 
Lenox  mountain  just  paid  what  the  label  said  and 
went  off  tickled  to  death." 

There  was  certainly  nothing  the  matter  with  the 
old  farmhouse — except  the  rent;  nothing  the  matter 
with  the  articles  the  dealer  had  put  in— except  that 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

he  was  asking  more  than  New  York  prices  on  ac- 
count of  their  present  environment.  It  was  cer- 
tainly an  amusing  and  unexpected  way  to  sell  an- 
tiques and  enhance  the  rentable  value  of  a  house.  It 
could  not  be  called  a  trap,  for  the  articles  of  furni- 
ture were  all  genuine. 

Driving  trips  need  not  always  be  distant  from 
one's  home.  At  times  the  most  surprising  discover- 
ies may  be  made  but  a  short  distance  from  where  one 
lives. 

We  were  out,  one  day,  driving  about  the  country, 
and  came  to  a  road  so  steep  that  the  buggy  seemed  in 
imminent  danger  of  sliding  down  over  the  back  of 
the  horse.  The  happy  nomenclature  of  the  neigh- 
borhood, so  it  appeared,  had  given  to  this  road  the 
cognomen  of  the  "Teakettle  Spout,"  on  such  an 
abrupt  and  dipping  line  was  it  constructed. 

At  the  foot  of  the  descent  a  little  stream  forced  its 
way  with  clamorous  perseverance  over  the  rocks 
with  which  the  bed  was  filled.  And  on  the  farther 
side,  on  a  sort  of  shelf  of  land  a  little  above  the 
brook,  stood  an  ancient  gabled  cottage  with  dentilled 
portico. 

A  widow  lived  there,  with  her  son  and  an  ancient 
servant — a  servant  such  as  these  modern  days  can 
never  develop!  Old,  old  she  was — one  could  al- 

[1-22] 


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ON  RAMBLING  DRIVING  TRIPS 

most  think  her  older  than  the  house — and  with  such 
an  ancient  unstayed  gown,  and  with  a  perfect  gem 
of  a  mulberry-colored  melon  bonnet  of  cotton  print, 
shaped  like  a  scoop,  quilted  with  cottony  puffs  and 
lined  ridges,  and  encompassing  a  gentle,  faithful 
face.  Sukey;  that  was  her  fitting  name.  And  in 
that  lonely  house,  in  that  steep  valley,  with  such  a 
servant,  it  seemed  certain  that  there  must  be 
treasure. 

Falling  into  a  talk  of  old  times  and  old  things, 
we  were  shown  up  the  steep  stairs  into  the  attic. 
Well,  there  \ras  not  so  very  much,  after  all;  but 
there  were  cupboards  and  chests,  and  a  litter  of  jugs 
and  baskets,  badly  broken  and  in  sad  repair. 

And  there,  against  the  farther  wall,  was  an  an- 
cient four-poster,  piled  high  with  blue  feather-ticks. 
It  was  a  slender  Heppelwhite  frame,  without  elabor- 
ate ornamentation,  but  well  and  capably  built. 
Ornamentation,  indeed,  is  more  apt  to  be  lacking  on 
old  four-posters  than  on  any  other  class  of  furniture. 
The  drapery,  the  curtains,  were  more  depended  upon 
for  fine  looks  than  was  the  framework.  Even  George 
Washington,  when  at  home,  slept  in  a  bed  of  com- 
paratively plain  frame.  The  poet's  ideal  of  the 
builders  who,  in  the  elder  days  of  art,  wrought  each 
minute  and  unseen  part  with  greatest  care,  does  not 

iml 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

hold  as  to  bedmaking  in  the  eighteenth  century;  nor, 
in  fact,  does  it  hold  to  any  appreciable  extent  in  the 
art  work  of  centuries  ago,  human  nature  being  al- 
ways pretty  much  the  same  and  there  never  having 
been  very  much  of  strong  determination  to  beautify 
what  was  to  be  hidden. 

With  no  difficulty,  the  four-poster  was  obtained, 
and  it  was  arranged  that  the  son  was  to  drive  it 
within  a  few  days  to  our  home. 

And  so,  one  morning,  there  was  the  sound  of  a 
wagon  stopping  at  our  door,  and  looking  out,  wre 
saw  the  son  of  the  widow.  But  where  was  the  four- 
poster  !  It  was  not  visible,  and  so  the  presumption 
was  that  the  young  man  had  come  to  say  that,  after 
all,  they  did  not  wish  to  dispose  of  it. 

But  the  bed  was  there !  At  the  house  we  had  told 
the  widow  that  we  did  not  care  for  the  four  pieces, 
full  of  rope-holes  through  which,  in  old-time  days, 
the  rope  was  crossed  and  crisscrossed  to  make  a 
strong  foundation  for  the  bedding  and  to  hold  the 
bedstead  together.  For  although  they  appeared  to 
be  clean  enough,  it  seemed  obviously  better  not  to 
use  them.  Without  these  rope-holed  pieces  the  bed- 
stead, when  taken  down,  was  but  a  bundle  of  sticks 
— the  four  posts  and  the  slender  bars  of  the  canopy, 
and  the  graceful  head-board. 

[126] 


ON  RAMBLING  DRIVING  TRIPS 

The  problem  presented  by  a  bed  that  was  now 
without  ends  and  sides  was  overcome  by  the  use  of 
an  iron  bedstead  strictly  hygienic  and  up-to-date — 
old  enough  in  association,  too,  if  one  must  insist,  for 
of  Og,  King  of  Bashan,  we  read  that  "his  bedstead 
was  a  bedstead  of  iron."  It  exactly  fitted  the  space 
between  the  upright  posts.  To  the  corners  of  this 
iron  bedstead  the  posts  were  fastened.  A  valance 
was  made  to  cover  the  iron  frame.  All  that  showed, 
therefore,  was  just  what  ought  to  show:  the  canopy 
and  the  posts  and  the  head-board. 

The  posts  show  not  only  above  the  valance,  but 
clear  to  the  floor,  outside  of  it;  for  we  remembered 
the  admirable  suggestion  of  Chippendale  that  it  is  a 
grievous  fault  to  hide  the  legs  of  a  bed,  because  there 
is  then  the  appearance  of  posts  supported  upon  cloth. 

In  meeting  strangers,  on  one's  random  rambles  in 
the  country,  offense  is  often  needlessly  given,  and 
an  opportunity  lost,  by  the  blunt  inquiry  as  to  whe- 
ther things  are  for  sale.  Most  people  rightly  resent 
this.  They  dislike  having  a  stranger  come  to  their 
door  and,  pointing  to  this  or  that  article,  ask,  "How 
much?"  Even  though  they  may  really  wish  to  sell 
they  resent  the  implication  that  they  have  the  ap- 
pearance of  being  so  poor  as  to  desire  to  dispose  of 
anything,  or  the  alternative  implication  that  they 

1*7] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

do  not  themselves  have  sufficient  taste  to  care  for 
what  others  deem  beautiful. 

But  the  danger  of  giving  offense,  of  hurting  the 
feelings  of  the  sensitive,  of  making  one's  self  disa- 
greeable, and  of  thereby  losing  the  chance  of  an  ac- 
quisition, is  entirely  avoided  by  an  inquiry  as  to 
whether  the  owner  of  the  thing  you  want  knows  of 
any  one  in  the  neighborhood  who  possesses  similar 
articles  and  would  be  willing  to  sell.  It  is  really 
astonishing  what  a  difference  the  use  of  this  formula 
makes.  Many  a  person  who  would  coldly  draw 
away  from  a  direct  question  is  quite  ready  to  sell 
when  he  thinks  your  inquiry  is  directed  toward  his 
neighbor ! 

Few  things  are  more  exasperating  for  the  collec- 
tor wandering  away  from  the  beaten  track,  driving 
off  into  one  country  district  or  another,  than  to  come 
upon  fine  old  articles  ruined  deliberately;  not  worn 
out,  but  so  smashed  or  altered  as  to  be  useless.  The 
memory  of  a  splendid  grandfather's  clock  lying  in 
hopeless  fragments  upon  a  woodpile,  comes 
strongly;  so  does  the  memory  of  two  sofas — one,  so 
ingeniously  mangled,  Procrustes-like,  to  fit  into  a 
recess  too  small  for  it,  that  it  was  irreparable,  and 
the  other,  a  fine  Empire,  with  its  back  sawed  off  to 
make  it  into  a  nondescript  bench  with  ends;  the 


ON  RAMBLING  DRIVING  TRIPS 

sawed-off  pieces  having  then  been  burned  up,  mak- 
ing restoration  impossible. 

On  the  other  hand,  eyes  are  often  gladdened,  as 
one  drives  along  some  out-of-the-way  road,  by  the 
sight  of  charming  Windsors  upon  a  porch,  or  quaint 
old  settles,  or  even,  what  we  once  saw  on  the  veran- 
dah of  a  delightful  little  low-browed  house,  a  black 
banister-back  chair  made  nearly  two  hundred  years 
ago.  There  is  keen  pleasure  in  seeing  these,  without 
the  disturbing  desire  to  possess  them. 

Driving  one  day  through  one  of  the  oldest  neigh- 
borhoods of  the  Western  Reserve,  we  stopped  at  a 
venerable  house,  white  and  narrow  eaved.  And  in 
the  garret  was  a  curious  sight.  There  were  lines  oil 
lines  of  ancient  coats  and  gowns,  the  old  clothes  of 
the  family's  ancestors,  preserved  partly,  no  doubt, 
from  a  feeling  of  pride,  partly,  no  doubt,  from  some 
vaguely  transmitted  instinct  of  thrift.  There  the 
old  clothes  hung,  ghostly,  limp,  strange,  swaying 
slightly  as  the  door  opened  upon  them,  as  if  startled 
out  of  mysterious  reveries. 

In  the  same  garret  stood,  primly,  some  enormous 
old-fashioned  bandboxes,  covered  with  gay-flowered 
paper.  And  there,  too,  we  came  across  a  silver 
toddy  ladle,  with  long  and  flexible  handle  of  whale- 
bone; and  in  the  bottom  of  the  bowl  of  the  ladle  was 

[  1 29  ] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

welded  a  shilling  of  George  the  Third;  as,  within 
three  such  ladles  which  we  once  saw  in  a  house  near 
Oxford,  were  welded  silver  coins  of  the  time  of 
Anne. 

After  learning  not  to  be  too  quick  to  consider  a 
piece  of  furniture  older  than  it  is,  it  is  important  not 
to  go  to  the  other  extreme  of  being  too  quick  to  con- 
sider it  new.  At  any  time,  and  especially  upon  driv- 
ing rambles  into  comparatively  unfrequented  re- 
gions, the  very  old  may  be  happened  upon. 

Stopping,  not  far  from  one  of  the  battlefields  of 
the  South,  at  a  great  old  house  from  whose  size  and 
appearance  we  should  have  expected  much,  but  where 
we  knew  it  was  unlikely  that  the  exigencies  of  war 
had  left  a  single  thing  of  the  past,  we  found  bare- 
ness and  comfortlessness,  but  hospitality.  We  found 
a  genial  man,  the  sole  occupant,  who,  it  being  a  cold 
day  and  the  fire  being  unresponsive,  poured  oil  upon 
the  troubled  flame  directly  from  a  large  can,  with  the 
nonchalant  remark:  "It  's  all  right;  it  7s  Georgia 
State  test!"  And  in  this  house,  in  spite  of  its  bare- 
ness, we  found  an  enormous  armoire,  huge  in  size, 
with  ball  feet;  it  was  at  least  a  century  and  a  half 
old,  and  stood  against  the  bare  wall,  defiant,  lonely, 
striking,  though  not  really  beautiful. 

The  unexpected  may  at  any  time  be  met  with. 

[130] 


"  The  sight  of  chairs  upon  a  porch."      Banister-back  and  Windsors 


ON  RAMBLING  DRIVING  TRIPS 

At  a  house,  almost  a  cabin,  near  a  village  which 
gave  its  name  to  one  of  the  great  battles,  we  found 
the  owner  and  occupant  to  be  the  descendant  of  one 
of  the  old  families,  ruined  by  the  Civil  War  and  its 
havoc.  His  father  had  lived  in  a  great  house  which 
had  been  destroyed;  but  servants  had  saved,  and  he 
now  proudly  took  out  and  displayed,  old  commis- 
sions and  letters  and  seals  of  Colonial  and  Revolu- 
tionary days,  and,  at  the  last,  the  uniform  of  a  colo- 
nel in  the  Mexican  War,  with  sword  and  soft  red 
sash. 

It  was  in  a  blealTand  scantily-settled  hill  country, 
some  fifty  miles  from  the  town,  Gallipolis,  where 
unhappy  exiles  from  France,  refugees  from  the 
French  Revolution,  vainly  tried  to  hew  homes  out  of 
the  Ohio  wilderness,  that  we  came  upon  a  sunny 
farmhouse,  a  veritable  bit  out  of  New  England,  the 
home  of  one  of  the  early  settlers,  where,  in  a  cup- 
board off  the  dining-room,  there  were  forty  pieces  of 
lavender  "sprigged"  china,  the  cups  and  sugar-bowl 
and  plates  being  of  octagonal  form;  and  in  this 
house  there  were  old  prints,  framed  in  narrow  black 
as  they  would  be  framed  to-day,  of  battles  and  he- 
roes of  the  War  of  1812. 

And  in  Kentucky,  driving  along  the  fine  limestone 
pikes  near  the  Ohio,  where,  in  a  dry  season,  the  white 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

dust  rises  in  clouds  and  settles  like  snow  upon  the 
shrubs  and  grass,  where  there  are  mighty  oaks  and 
lines  of  silver  poplars,  where  houses,  old  and  new, 
look  out  toward  the  magnificent  river  and  where  the 
friendly  people  cordially  give  a  welcome,  there  are 
numerous  things  of  value. 

One  is  first  attracted  by  the  tall  ten-rail  fences 
which  give  such  an  impression  of  the  jumping 
powers  of  Kentucky  colts,  but  one  is  more  attracted 
by  the  recurrent  old-time  houses  of  squared  timbers 
and  by  the  things  of  the  olden  time  still  to  be  found. 
In  some  of  the  better  houses  there  are  fine  treasures, 
but  even  in  many  a  simpler  house  there  are  articles 
of  what  may  be  termed  the  splint-bottom  school 
of  antiques;  iron  fire-dogs,  simple  chairs,  old  waffle- 
irons,  long-handled,  not  for  the  purpose  of  supping 
with  a  certain  distinguished  one  of  evil  reputation 
but  for  holding  the  irons  over  the  blazing  coals  in 
deep  fireplaces. 

If  one  only  realizes  it,  it  is  sometimes  as  easy  to  go 
from  one  place  to  another,  within  reasonable  limits, 
on  a  vacation  outing,  as  to  remain  fixed  at  one  point. 
It  was  on  a  brief  summer  driving  trip  that  we  went 
through  the  French  Creek  region  of  the  northwestern 
part  of  Pennsylvania;  that  region  in  which  Wash- 
ington first  won  reputation,  early  in  the  1750*5,  as 

[134] 


ON  RAMBLING  DRIVING  TRIPS 

envoy  from  the  Governor  of  Virginia  to  the  com- 
mandant of  a  French  fort  but  a  few  miles  from  Lake 
Erie. 

We  stayed  over  night  at  a  somewhat  old-fash- 
ioned hotel  in  a  little  town;  and  the  room  in  which 
Lafayette  had  slept,  on  the  occasion  of  his  triumphal 
progress  through  the  United  States  when  an  old 
man,  was  shown  us,  and  the  ball-room  where  he  had 
danced.  It  was  doubtless  a  mistake  of  the  stone- 
mason that  made  the  date  upon  the  building,  cut  in 
the  stone  upon  the^ront,  a  year  later  than  that  of 
Lafayette's  visit! 

However,  the  house  had  a  good  deal  of  dignity  of 
its  own;  and  it  also  had  a  really  good  specimen  of 
Empire  sideboard,  very  large,  with  pillars  and  claw 
feet,  that  stood  out  of  sight  in  a  passageway  between 
dining-room  and  kitchen. 

The  proprietor  was  pleased  that  it  was  looked 
upon  as  of  any  interest.  Frankly,  he  did  not  greatly 
value  it.  "I  am  using  it,  you  see,"  he  said;  "but  if 
you  care  to  have  a  carpenter  build  a  set  of  shelves, 
with  doors,  in  there  for  me,  to  put  my  dishes  in,  you 
may  take  the  sideboard  away." 

Well,  there  were  reasons  why  it  was  inconvenient 
to  remain  there  and  superintend  the  necessary  work; 
and  generous  though  the  hotelkeeper's  offer  was,  its 

[  135  ] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

acceptance  would  have  made  the  obtaining  of  the 
sideboard  an  expensive  matter,  after  all — as  all  who 
have  had  doors  and  shelving  built  to  order  will 
understand — but  the  incident  shows  anew  how  on 
every  hand  lie  possibilities. 

But  one  does  not  always  meet  with  moderate  esti- 
mates of  value,  even  in  little-visited  neighborhoods. 

"Be  you  looking  for  blue  plates'?"  was  the  in- 
quiry once  addressed  to  us  by  a  woman  in  the  front 
door  of  an  isolated  house.  She  had  a  few  rather 
good  ones;  plates  worth  fifty  cents  apiece  in  the 
shops,  in  current  money  with  the  merchant.  But 
she  had  been  influenced,  isolated  though  she  was,  by 
the  unwise  talk  of  some  one  who,  not  from  love  of 
the  old  or  from  consideration  for  the  owner,  but 
from  uninformed  enthusiasm,  had  set  prices  out  of 
all  reason  upon  her  pieces. 

"Be  you  looking  for  blue  plates'?"  We  looked  at 
them;  but  found  that  the  owner  firmly,  almost  ag- 
gressively, was  holding  them  at  five  dollars  a  plate. 

And  we  once  came  across  a  farmhouse  where  a 
woman,  after  showing  a  fairly  good  pattern  of  old- 
fashioned  coverlet,  remarked  that  if  any  one  should 
ever  want  to  buy  it  she  would  "let  it  go"  for  fifty 
dollars.  It  was  we,  not  she,  who  let  it  go. 

No  matter  how  far  one  may  travel  in  excursions 

[136] 


ON  RAMBLING  DRIVING  TRIPS 

into  the  country,  it  is  difficult  to  find  a  district  where 
the  professional  dealer  has  not  been.  The  trail  of 
the  dealer  is  over  almost  all.  He  finds  his  profit  in 
the  lonely  farmhouse.  Nowhere  else  can  he  obtain 
the  real  things  so  cheaply.  And  even  if  dishonest 
in  the  matter  of  being  willing  to  sell  imitations,  he 
none  the  less  finds  his  profit  here,  for  he  can  pick  up 
fine  old  pieces  for  far  less  than  he  could  have  them 
manufactured. 

Yet  the  dealer,  with  all  his  persistent  cleverness 
and  his  experience,  misses  many  a  treasure.  He  is 
often  unable  to  impress  the  people  that  they  should 
sell  to  him.  Family  pride  is  apt  to  assert  itself, 
even  though  there  may  be  no  real  desire  to  retain  the 
desired  piece.  To  sell  to  a  lover  of  the  old,  to  one 
who  really  admires  the  things  for  their  own  sake,  has 
in  it  no  sting.  But  to  sell  for  mere  money,  and  very 
little  at  that,  is  another  matter. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  there  are  many  folk  who 
have  no  dislike  of  selling  to  dealers;  who,  indeed,  are 
more  ready  to  sell  more  cheaply  to  them;  for,  so  it 
appears,  the  dealer  must  be  at  the  expense  of  hand- 
ling and  repairing  before  he  can  sell  again !  A  sort 
of  topsyturvydom  of  logic,  but  none  the  less  fre- 
quently met  with. 

These  itinerant  dealers,  who  do  so  much  to  make 

[137] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

hard  the  way  of  the  amateur  collector  by  seizing 
upon  things  before  his  appearance,  are  of  two  kinds : 
the  junk  dealers,  who  frankly  buy  as  scrap  and  who 
are  fatal  to  many  a  candlestick  and  many  a  pair  of 
andirons,  and*  the  furniture  men  who  buy  as  furni- 
ture, and  who  are  fatal,  from  the  collector's  view- 
point, to  many  a  rare  old  specimen. 

Sometimes  a  quite  obvious  opportunity  to  ac- 
quire a  good  bit  remains  curiously  open,  in  spite  of 
the  indefatigable  collectors  and  dealers. 

In  an  empty,  deserted,  ruined  house,  and  put 
away  behind  a  door,  in  a  cellar,  and  forgotten,  we 
once  came  upon  a  pair  of  good  iron  hand-wrought 
andirons.  There  was  some  reason  why,  that  day,  it 
was  not  convenient  to  carry  the  big  pieces  of  iron 
with  us,  and  so  we  drove  regretfully  on  without 
them. 

But,  a  year  later,  we  were  driving  once  more  down 
the  charming  road,  a  river  on  one  side  and  a  rocky 
hill  on  the  other,  and  once  more  we  came  to  the  old, 
deserted  house,  which  was  just  a  little  more  ruinous, 
just  a  little  more  falling  to  pieces,  than  it  had  been 
when  we  first  discovered  it. 

Naturally,  the  thought  of  the  andirons  once  more 
came.  And  so,  into  the  empty  house  (the  door  had 
long  since  disappeared),  across  the  quavering  floor, 

[138] 


ON  RAMBLING  DRIVING  TRIPS 

down  the  trembling  stair— and  there,  tucked  away, 
just  as  they  had  been  found  and  left  twelve  months 
before,  were  the  andirons! 

The  owner,  in  a  house  not  far  away,  was  found, 
and  gladly  took  a  silver  quarter  in  exchange  for  the 
rusty  fire-dogs  whose  existence  had  been  so  com- 
pletely forgotten. 

Always  one  is  upon  the  verge  of  the  unanticipa- 
ted, the  unlooked-for;  except,  indeed,  that  the  unex- 
pected happens  so  often  to  the  enthusiast  as  thereby 
to  lose  much  of  its  unexpectedness. 

We  were  driving  along  a  road  of  alluring  beauty, 
between  Tyringham  and  Great  Barrington,  amid  the 
tender  glory  of  the  sweeping  hills,  and  we  stopped  at 
an  empty  cottage  whose  door  stood  invitingly  open. 
This  cottage  had  been  examined  but  a  short  time  be- 
fore, so  we  learned,  by  former  President  Cleveland, 
with  the  view  of  possibly  making  it  the  summer 
home  for  himself  and  his  family,  so  commanding 
was  its  location  on  the  hillside  with  a  superb  view 
stretching  away  for  miles. 

Meadow  grass  swept  up  to  the  very  door,  and 
right  at  the  entrance  was  a  flowing  spring.  Some  of 
the  rooms  were  unplastered,  some  had  stone  fire- 
places, and  all  were  empty  of  furniture. 

From  the  side  door  the  path  led  between  lilac 

[139] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

bushes  and  tansy  to  a  little  barn  and  a  littler  tool- 
shed.  The  barn,  like  the  house,  was  entirely  empty, 
and  so  was  the  shed. 

Against  the  wall  of  the  shed  was  a  cupboard  made 
for  holding  glue  and  nails  and  workshop  odds  and 
ends. 

The  cupboard  was  bare — but  its  door  instantly 
attracted  attention.  It  was  a  complete  mirror 
frame! — with  sides  and  top  and  bottom  complete, 
and  even  the  wooden  stripping  of  the  back. 


[140] 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  FIELD  IN  NEW  YORK  AND  VICINITY 

NEW  YORK,  trie  exponent  of  the  present,  the 
representative  of  the  modern,  the  strenuous 
city  of  the  twentieth  century,  in  which  no 
crime  is  so  serious  as  being  of  the  past,  would  scarcely 
be  looked  upon  as  a  place  for  the  collector  of  the  an- 
tique. Yet  in  New  York  City  there  is  much  that  is 
old,  and  in  its  near  vicinity  there  is  even  more. 
There  are,  too,  in  New  York,  as  residents  or  tran- 
sients, more  people  seeking  for  the  old  than  seek  for 
it  in  any  other  of  our  cities,  and  therefore  the  de- 
mand is  met  with  a  supply,  even  if  the  supply  is  far 
from  being  in  every  case  all  that  it  might  be. 

So  eager  is  the  desire  to  tear  down  old-time  build- 
ings, that  it  is  difficult  to  imagine  things  of  the  past 
in  the  spick-span  structures  that  have  arisen  in  their 
place;  and  it  was  a  keen  pleasure  to  find  unexpec- 

[HI] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

tedly  in  one  of  the  newest  of  apartment  houses,  a 
really  astonishing  collection,  brought  to  New  York 
by  the  descendants  of  an  old  family  coming  here 
from  the  South,  and  consisting  of  portraits,  old  let- 
ters from  presidents  and  generals,  jewels  of  the  wife 
of  an  officer  of  Washington,  old  mahogany,  even  a 
painting  by  that  remarkable  artist,  of  almost  a  cen- 
tury ago,  Chester  Harding,  who,  from  being  a  painter 
of  houses  became  a  maker  of  portraits  and  in  the  very 
beginning  of  his  career  went  to  Paris — but  it  was 
Paris  in  Kentucky! — for  his  artistic  experience,  and 
then  painted  the  great  folk  of  the  earth. 

There  is  a  splendid  collection  of  antique  furniture 
in  the  Van  Cortlandt  mansion  house,  in  charge  of  one 
of  the  patriotic  societies;  and  it  points  the  possibili- 
ties of  what  may  be  in  this  great  city,  that  the  finest 
sofa  there  was  donated  by  a  sergeant  of  the  New 
York  police  force. 

One  comes  to  know  of  many  a  beautiful  piece  in 
private  ownership  and  to  divine  that  there  must  be 
in  all  a  vast  number;  and,  wherever  things  are,  the 
collector  who  has  faith  and  experience  knows  that 
possibilities  of  securing  them  must  from  time  to  time 
arise. 

Of  course,  there  are  great  shops  where  an- 
tiques, or  alleged  antiques,  are  sold,  but,  for  our- 

[142] 


NEW  YORK  AND  VICINITY 

selves,  we  came  to  prefer  the  pleasure  of  dropping  in 
upon  a  curious  old  Austrian,  who  keeps  a  little  shop 
in  rather  a  shabby  part  of  the  city.  A  man  of  curi- 
ous personal  history  he;  twenty-one  years  he  served 
in  the  Austrian  army,  and  fourteen  of  those  years 
was  stationed  as  a  soldier  in  Venice.  He  and  his 
four  brothers  were  in  the  crushing  defeat  of  Solfer- 
ino ;  and,  of  the  five,  only  he  escaped  with  life. 

His  shop,  as  one  would  expect,  is  like  a  shop  in  a 
quiet  street  of  a  foreigiytown.  He  always  has  about 
the  same  row  of  dusty  pewter  mugs  and  jugs,  the 
same  stand  of  arms,  the  same  group  of  fire-irons  and 
brasses  and  samovars,  the  same  dusty  old  bronze 
lamps  and  hot-water  dishes;  but  somewhere  in  that 
shop  is  always  a  bit  of  treasure.  Perhaps  it  is  a  hel- 
met coal-scuttle,  perhaps  a  silver  candlestick,  perhaps 
a  pewter  tankard,  a  brass  fender,  a  tall  clock,  a  Shef- 
field tray,  an  old  mirror  frame. 

His  is  not  the  smart  shop  of  big  prices.  His  is 
that  happy  find — a  "shabby  shop"  ! 

His  prices  have  gone  up  somewhat  with  the  pass- 
ing of  the  years.  He  will  tell  you  that  things  are 
harder  to  get  than  they  used  to  be  before  the  growth 
of  interest  in  antiques,  and  that  now  "when  I  go  to 
an  auction  on  Long  Island  I  can  hardly  get  through 
the  crowd  of  carriages  at  the  door."  Naturally 

[M3] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

enough,  the  helmet  coal-scuttle,  in  brass,  for  two  dol- 
lars, is  now  but  a  memory  of  six  years  ago;  now,  at 
eight  dollars  each,  they  stay  with  him  but  a  day.  But 
there  are  other  things  on  which  prices  have  not  pro- 
portionately changed. 

To  the  favored  few  he  gives  the  key  to  his  cabinet 
of  small  and  precious  things ;  gives  it  and  turns  away 
to  leave  one  in  peace  to  look  over  the  seals  and  mini- 
atures and  ivory-bound  prayer-books  and  tortoise- 
shell  snuff-boxes  of  generations  ago.  It  is  a  fetching 
process,  this  exploration ;  it  seldom  fails  of  the  result- 
ant "How  much*?" — and  then  there  will  be  two  or 
three  things  set  together  and  the  old  Austrian  will 
teeter  up  and  down  on  his  toes  and  say,  "So  much  for 
the  lot!" 

A  type,  this,  of  an  interesting  class  of  dealer  that 
is  supposed  never  to  have  existed  in  this  country  or 
else  to  have  passed  away ;  and  yet  he  and  such  as  he, 
although  in  limited  number,  may  be  unearthed. 

In  the  neighborhood  of  New  York  there  are  many 
small  towns  where  treasures  of  old  furniture  can  still 
be  found.  What  used  to  be  the  most  promising  of 
these  towns  is  on  Long  Island,  within  pleasant  trol- 
leying  distance  of  the  city,  and  a  shop  there  should 
be  described,  on  account  of  its  being  typical  of  a 
class. 

[144] 


Tea  and  Antiques 


That  happy  find — a  '  shabby-shop  ' 


NEW  YORK  AND  VICINITY 

An  old  man,  himself  a  lover  of  the  antique,  bought 
and  stored  a  prodigious  number  of  old  tables  and 
chairs,  bureaus  and  desks,  andirons  and  fenders  and 
candlesticks.  His  was  distinctly  one  of  the  "shabby 
shops,"  to  use  again  a  term  beloved  of  the  collector. 
No  cabinet-maker's  strategy  improved  his  pieces,  no 
smell  of  linseed  oil  or  shellac  marked  efforts  to 
brighten  their  dinginess.  There  were  the  dust  and 
the  smell  and  the  breakages  that  go  with  so  many  of 
the  things  of  long  ago. 

The  owner  of  this  great  collection  spent  his  time 
in  looking  for  more.  Although  his  stock  filled  an 
old-fashioned  country  store,  and  three  barns  and  an 
attic,  there  was  not  room  for  all  his  acquisitions,  and 
we  have  seen  a  bandy-legged  claw-and-ball  table  be- 
side the  hencoop,  exposed  to  the  weather,  and  several 
old  sofas,  of  no  mean  design,  with  only  tarpaulin  to 
cover  their  gray  hairs. 

With  what  eagerness,  on  our  first  visit,  we 
mounted  the  store  porch  and  approached  the  door.  It 
was  locked.  We  shook  it  and  peered  in.  Against  the 
window  frame  hung  several  brown  silver  salvers. 
They  were  dull  and  unpolished,  but  fine.  Old  candle- 
sticks, broken  blue  teapots,  and  the  odds  and  ends  of 
years  of  gathering  filled  the  rest  of  the  window. 
After  peering  for  many  minutes  a  man  showed  him- 

[147] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

self,  who,  spearing  us  with  his  single  eye,  suspiciously 
demanded  to  know  if  we  wanted  anything  in  partic- 
ular. 

What  we  wanted  was  to  see  the  dealer,  of  whom 
we  had  heard,  and  then  under  his  guidance  to  see  his 
stock.  So  the  first  inquiry  was  for  the  dealer. 
"He  's  over  in  Connecticut,  to  a  sale." 
We  naturally  wanted  to  see  the  stock  anyhow, 
having  trolleyed  out  there  for  no  other  purpose. 
But  the  one-eyed  seemed  to  resent  any  idea  of  look- 
ing at  the  stock  and  was  even  disinclined  to  accept  a 
hint  as  to  opening  the  door.  No  museum  attendant, 
after  the  closing  hour,  could  have  been  more  disoblig- 
ing than  was  this  supposed-to-be  clerk  in  the  middle 
of  the  afternoon. 

"Well,  have  you  any  open-work  brass  fenders'?" 
He  grudgingly  opened  the  door.  We  entered. 
But  there  was  barely  room  to  move.  Back  to  back 
there  were  chests  of  drawers  and  shabby  high-boys, 
there  were  sofas  rampant,  there  were  beds  with  test- 
ers and  beds  with  low  posts  jostling  one  another,  and 
there  were  chaotic  masses  of  work-tables,  candle- 
stands  and  mirror  frames.  On  the  walls,  upon  pegs, 
hung  innumerable  chairs.  In  the  corners  were  piles 
of  things  randomly  heaped,  good,  bad  and  indifferent 
merged  indistinguishably. 

Our  eyes  grew  accustomed  to  the  dim  light  that  fil- 


NEW  YORK  AND  VICINITY 

tered  in  through  dirty  windows,  and,  although  the 
one-eyed  could  not  at  once  discover  where  any  brass 
fenders  were  lost,  we  saw  an  inlaid  dressing  glass 
which  greatly  pleased  us.  But  the  man  took  a 
queerer  turn  and  said  that  he  did  n't  know  what  to 
charge,  and,  anyway,  Mr.  H —  didn't  care  particu- 
larly about  selling  that. 

So  it  was  with  many  aawther  thing;  and  the  ran- 
dom prices  he  now  and  then  consented  to  give  seemed 
to  have  little  connection  with  the  value  of  the  arti- 
cles, and  we  left  him  to  lock  up  and  returned  to  the 
city. 

On  the  occasion  of  another  trip,  a  year  later,  we 
found  the  old  man  who  was  the  collector  of  this  great 
mass  of  treasure.  And  we  discovered  his  secret.  He 
really  did  not  want  to  sell !  He  wanted  to  gather 
in.  A  Sheraton  sofa  was  picked  out — but  he  did  not 
want  it  to  leave  his  sight.  He  evaded  putting  a 
price  on  it.  He  showed  a  poor  and  featureless  one 
and  offered  that  instead.  He  had  little  to  say  and 
little  to  sell.  He  was  a  veritable  miser  of  old  furni- 
ture! 

He  died,  not  long  after  this,  and  his  heirs  showed 
clearly  that  they  were  not  of  his  way  of  thinking. 
For  all  the  shabby  old  treasures  were  sent  to  Fifth 
Avenue,  and  during  six  days'  rapid  selling,  following 
wide  advertising,  they  were  auctioned  to  make  a  New 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

York  holiday.  They  were  sold  in  their  shabby,  un- 
repaired condition,  so  that  the  buyers  could  see  pre- 
cisely what  they  were  getting,  but  there  was  the  pro- 
viso that  every  article  should  be  put  in  perfect  con- 
dition, and  be  properly  polished,  before  delivery. 

This  occurred  but  recently,  and  is  another  example 
of  twentieth-century  opportunities. 

In  contrast  to  that  man  of  Long  Island  is  one 
whose  place  is  near  the  Kill  van  Kull.  This  man's 
establishment  has  a  widespread  area  of  back  rooms 
behind  the  store  front,  but  the  stock  is  so  variable 
that  there  may  not  be  a  single  piece  worth  buying  or 
there  may  be  a  dozen  choice  bits. 

We  have  never  seen  the  owner  at  his  shop.  He 
spends  his  time  in  trips  that  take  him  not  only  to 
near-by  points  but  even  as  far  as  Pennsylvania  and 
Massachusetts. 

His  wife  meets  customers ;  and  though  she  does  not 
seem  to  know  a  Chippendale  from  a  Jacobean  by 
name,  she  knows  them  in  value,  and  her  "Them  's 
seven  dollars,"  or  "Them  's  one  dollar"  covers  the 
ground. 

When,  perhaps  in  Westchester  or  in  some  New 
Jersey  village,  this  man  finds  a  Heppelwhite  side- 
board or  a  slant-top  secretary,  he  sends  word  to  a  few 
of  his  customers — clients  is  perhaps  a  good  word — 


NEW  YORK  AND  VICINITY 

and  they  are  in  his  shop  when  the  crated  piece  ap- 
pears. He  takes  it  as  a  compliment  to  his  shrewdness 
when  his  shop  is  empty  of  all  but  the  trash  that  seems 
bound  to  accumulate  about  every  antique  dealer,  no 
matter  what  his  knowledge. 

We  came  to  know  the  dealer  personally  in  a  curi- 
ous way.  One  morning,  some  men  were  heard,  with- 
in the  portico  of  our  home^  apparently  fumbling  at 
the  knocker  on  the  front  door.  Then  came  a  voice : 
"I  '11  give  you  three  dollars  for  one  like  that."  It 
was  clearly  a  case  of  one  man  offering  another  a  price 
for  a  knocker  like  our  treasure  from  Quebec,  with 
the  added  implication,  in  the  absence  of  knowledge 
of  identity  and  purpose,  that  a  price  was  put  upon 
that  particular  knocker ! 

Now,  that  was  not  a  thing  to  be  taken  lightly;  and 
so  there  was  the  prompt  overhauling  of  two  forms 
disappearing  down  the  village  street. 

Then,  for  the  first  time,  was  met  the  owner  of  the 
Kill  van  Kull  shop !  With  a  local  guide  he  was  cov- 
ering the  neighborhood,  seeking  what  old  pieces  of 
furniture  he  could,  financially  speaking,  devour,  and 
in  all  honesty  of  purpose  he  had  been  explaining  to 
his  guide  that  knockers  such  as  ours  are  always  desir- 
able. 

He  came  back  to  the  old  brick  building  and,  enter- 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

ing,  his  eyes  at  once  glanced  upon  a  treasure  which 
erstwhile  had  stood  in  his  own  rambling  establish- 
ment. He  recognized  it  at  once,  for  thus  it  is  with  the 
enthusiastic  vendor  of  treasures.  Then  he  looked 
at  our  other  things,  and,  moved  thereto  by  fellow 
feeling  (for  this  class  of  dealer  is  always  a  lover  of 
furniture  at  heart,  and  not  a  salesman),  he  launched 
into  curious  details  of  what  his  trips  had  taught  him, 
especially  in  regard  to  our  particular  countryside; 
telling  of  here  a  cupboard,  there  a  chest  of  drawers, 
there  an  old  clock,  which  he  had  been  on  the  trail  of 
and  in  hopes  of  getting  but  which  we  might  secure 
even  if  he  did  not.  His  familiarity  with  roads  and 
houses  was  astonishing.  He  had  unearthed  curious 
secrets  of  garret  and  cellar,  and  frankly  talked  of 
them.  And  from  him  we  learned  to  realize  more 
fully,  not  only  what  treasures  the  perseverance  and 
ingratiating  ways  of  such  men  secure,  but  also  that 
there  are  country  dwellers  who,  ready  enough  to  sell 
to  the  amateur,  will  not  sell  to  the  professional 
dealer. 

By  way  of  contrast  there  has  sprung  up  in  the 
immediate  vicinity  of  New  York,  within  driving  or 
easy  automobiling  distance  of  the  city,  a  new  type  of 
shop,  fascinating  in  appearance,  where  the  wares  are 
spread  through  sundry  rooms,  with  an  air  of  furnish- 


NEW  YORK  AND  VICINITY 

ing  rather  than  of  display,  and  where,  in  the  midst 
of  a  glow  of  polished  mahogany  and  Sheffield  plate, 
luncheon  and  tea  are  served,  so  that  while  you  eat 
you  are  tempted.  The  opportunity  for  talk  while 
tea  is  sipped  leads  to  many  a  purchase,  large  and 
small,  and  a  most  delightful  sort  of  shopkeeping  is 
thus  carried  on.  As  to  reliability  and  genuineness, 
it  is  merely  as  it  is  everywhere  else — that  is,  the 
judgment  of  the  buyer  himself  must  always  in  the 
last  resort  be  relied  upon  to  pick  the  true  from  the 
false,  if  any  should  be  false. 

On  the  Jersey  side  of  the  Hudson,  less  than  twenty 
miles  from  New  York  City,  we  called  on  an  aged 
couple  on  the  day  of  the  fiftietl/ anniversary  of  their 
wedding.  And  their  house  is  one  of  the  many  re- 
minders that  much  of  the  antique  is  still  to  be  found. 

But,  alas !  their  sitting  room  that  day  displayed  an 
incongruous  sight.  For  in  a  semi-circle  were  ten 
armchairs  of  painfully  modern  construction,  sent  in 
as  anniversary  gifts  by  relatives,  and  these  chairs  had 
displaced  the  charming  old  furniture  that  the  cou- 
ple loved.  But  elsewhere  in  the  house  there  were 
still  the  treasured  old  articles. 

After  a  while,  we  strolled  out  into  the  garden, 
and  we  all  sat  down  beside  an  overgrown  mass  of 
fragrant  box  under  the  shadow  of  an  ancient  well- 

[1/3] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

sweep,  where  moss  pinks  were  growing  in  fragrant 
beds.  And  the  dear  old  lady  gave  us  strawberries 
and  cream  in  delightful  old  saucers  of  lustre-ware, 
and  the  pitcher  and  bowl  were  of  lustre-ware  as  well. 
Somehow,  it  was  all  like  a  leaf  out  of  the  past;  the 
fine  old  faces,  in  an  environment  still  older. 

It  is  one  thing  to  state,  in  broad  generalization, 
that  within  the  immediate  vicinity  of  New  York 
there  are  countless  articles  of  old  furniture ;  it  is  an- 
other to  tell  definitely  what  some  particular  locality 
can  show,  so  that  the  collector  may  be  stimulated  to 
new  efforts  and  a  deeper  enthusiasm. 

And  so,  selecting  one  single  village,  we  took  its 
furniture  census. 

The  village  is  less  than  two  hours  by  rail  from 
New  York,  it  is  a  village  of  ancestry,  of  the  leaven 
of  the  Colonies  and  the  Revolution.  It  is,  too,  a 
village  in  whose  vicinity,  upon  little  lanes  and  cross- 
roads, still  dwell  colored  folk,  lineal  descendants  of 
those  slaves  of  New  York  who  were  not  freed  until 
three-quarters  of  a  century  ago. 

The  village  has  more  old  furniture  than  some; 
it  has  less  than  others;  it  may  therefore  well  stand  as 
an  example  of  what  still  exists  in  some  of  the  towns 
not  far  from  the  metropolis. 

For  sale?     Most  fortunately,  no !     For  if  the  old- 

[154] 


"•  O 

era. 


NEW  YORK  AND  VICINITY 

time  treasures  were  all  upon  the  market  the  field 
would  all  too  soon  be  exhausted.  And  yet,  by 
chance  or  mischance,  almost  anything  is  apt  some 
time  to  be  obtainable.  The  piece  which  cannot,  to- 
day, be  purchased  at  any  price,  may  be  for  sale  to- 
morrow. And  when  such  things  are  for  sale,  it 
would  please  those  who  have  long  treasured  them  to 
know  that  they  are  to  pass  into  the  hands  of  such  as 
shall  long  treasure  them  in  turn. 

Here,  literally  enumerated,  naught  to  exaggerate 
nor  aught  to  set  down  excessively,  is  what  is  in  that 
town. 

Beginning  on  the  outskirts  of  the  village,  there  is 
a  rambling  old  house,  connected  with  the  literary  his- 
tory of  a  bygone  generation,  and  in  this  house  there 
are  silver  candlesticks  and  two  silver  candelabra,  a 
Chippendale  chair,  a  set  of  fine  old  Canton  china,  and 
two  good  corner-cupboards  built  into  a  wainscoted 
wall. 

Next  comes  a  still  more  ancient  house :  a  picture- 
esquely  low-eaved  cottage,  sheltered  under  the  shoul- 
der of  a  hill;  and  here  are  an  Empire  sofa,  an  old 
settee,  rush-seated  and  slender-spoked,  blue  coverlets, 
and,  chief  pride  of  the  cottage,  a  fine  armchair  that 
was  made  more  than  a  century  and  a  half  ago. 

Another  house ;  and  here  are  a  grandfather's  clock, 

[1/7] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

old  silver,  Windsor  chairs,  and  a  Heppelwhite  side- 
board sadly  broken  but  with  all  the  fragments  care- 
fully kept  with  intent  to  repair. 

Continuing,  we  reach  a  house  whose  stately  charm, 
antedating  the  Revolution,  lies  in  gambrel  roof, 
and  small-paned  windows,  and  felicitous  chimneys, 
and  white  paint,  and  perfect  proportion  of  parts,  and 
magnificent  encompassing  trees.  And  it  holds 
wealth  of  the  old-fashioned,  to  match  such  an  exter- 
ior— chests  of  drawers,  innumerable  tables,  a  tall 
clock,  a  wardrobe  with  bonnet-top,  a  cabinet,  a  side- 
board and  many  chairs.  On  the  door  is  an  old  brass 
knocker. 

The  setting  down  of  these  literal  facts  must  seem 
like  a  fairy  tale  to  those  who  believe  that  almost  all 
old-fashioned  furniture  has  been  seized  upon. 

In  another  house  there  is  a  really  splendid  chest  of 
drawers,  there  are  old  brass  fenders,  blue  and  white 
coverlets,  blue  Spode,  a  particularly  beautiful  pair 
of  brass  tongs,  a  grandfather's  clock,  a  brass  knocker, 
an  old  tip-table;  and,  until  recently,  there  lay,  for- 
gotten and  neglected,  in  the  wagon-shed,  a  fine  old 
sofa,  which  needed  but  renovation  to  make  it  an  or- 
nament to  any  house. 

Chippendale  chairs,  Windsor  chairs,  an  Empire 
sideboard  with  pillars  and  claws,  a  mirror — such  is 
the  treasure  of  another  house;  and,  continuing  the 


NEW  YORK  AND  VICINITY 

furniture  census,  we  next  note  a  little  old  dwelling, 
inhabited  by  an  aged  widow,  where  there  are  a  full 
tea-set  of  beautiful  Lowestoft,  a  pair  of  andirons, 
and  a  tall  clock. 

Across  the  street  from  this  house  is  one  in  which 
are  an  old  Dutch  wardrobe,  paneled,  of  oak,  a  four- 
post  bed,  a  rare  mantel  clock  in  brass  and  mahogany, 
a  lustre  pitcher,  a  chest  of  drawers,  a  bookcase  with 
paneled  glass,  and  a  brass  knocker. 

A  little  down  the  street,  and  there  stands  a  house 
wherein  is  a  fine  old  set  of  drawers.  Until  a  few 
years  ago  the  house  was  furnished  from  top  to  bottom 
with  things  ancient,  most  of  which  were  widely  scat- 
tered at  an  auction  following  the  owner's  death. 

Another  house,  and  we  find  an  old  mirror;  in  an- 
other, a  Sheraton  desk ;  another,  cranes  and  pothooks. 

Then  a  house  where,  until  recently,  there  were  a 
number  of  splint-bottom  and  Windsor  chairs,  which 
some  one  from  New  York,  finding  that  the  owner 
would  sell,  purchased  for  twenty-five  cents  apiece. 

Another  house  shows  a  brass  door-knocker;  an- 
other has  a  candlestand  and  a  fine  desk.  And  then 
comes  one,  lived  in  by  a  venerable  man,  whose  taste, 
running  to  the  modern,  has  filled  his  old  white  house 
with  furniture  of  the  latest  design,  while  his  attic  is 
crowded  with  old-fashioned  pieces  which  he  will  not 
even  think  of  parting  with  and  which  he  rarely  per- 

[159] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

mits  any  one  to  see,  he  being  over  ninety  and  not 
much  liking  to  be  disturbed.  A  brass  knocker  on  the 
side  door,  the  fifth  thus  far  in  this  little  village,  is 
the  only  sign,  below  the  garret,  that  the  building 
holds  anything  of  old-time  note. 

Another  house,  and  there  is  a  rare  set  of  three  din- 
ing-tables,  rope-legged,  and  of  mahogany;  there  is  a 
brass  fender;  there  is  an  old-fashioned  dressing-glass 
and  table;  there  are  old  blue  dishes;  there  is  an  old 
traveling-case,  of  mahogany  and  brass,  with  its  bot- 
tles and  drinking-glasses. 

Another  house  has  an  old  and  desirable  sideboard, 
which  a  dealer's  recent  offer  of  fifty  dollars  did  not 
tempt  the  owner  to  part  with,  and  a  brass  knocker. 
In  another  there  is  a  mirror  of  mahogany,  with  or- 
molu mounting.  Another  has  a  Sheraton  table,  a 
bandy-legged  table,  a  knocker,  and  chairs  and  candle- 
sticks. In  the  next  a  banjo  clock  had  just  been  sold. 
In  another  are  a  Chippendale  chair,  a  mirror  with 
acorn  drops,  old-time  silhouettes,  a  mahogany  dining- 
table,  and  tea-tables  of  ancient  make. 

Almost  through  the  little  village  now,  we  come  to 
a  house  in  which  are  an  unusually  beautiful  chest  of 
drawers  of  Empire  design,  a  Lowestoft  cream- jug, 
rush-bottomed  chairs  of  very  graceful  pattern,  and 
very  fine  andirons. 


NEW  YORK  AND  VICINITY 

On  the  farther  edge  of  the  village  is  a  house  in 
which  are  two  sideboards,  one  Sheraton  and  one  Em- 
pire, an  Empire  cheval  glass,  a  diamond-paned  sec- 
retary, andirons,  tip-tables,  two  chests  of  drawers, 
and  eigjit  old  decanters  of  cut  glass ! 

Near  by  is  a  house  with  a  brass  knocker,  and  a 
French  bed  that  has  roll  ends.  Then  a  house  in  which 
is  a  great  four-post  Empire  bed,  a  set  of  Sheffield- 
plate  silver  in  fascinating  shapes,  and  an  Empire 
clock. 

And  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  village 
there  is  a  house  in  which  are  a  beautiful  specimen  of 
five-slat  chair,  a  Continental  mirror,  old  andirons 
and  candlesticks;  and  another  house  wherein  are  an 
Empire  table,  with  pillars  elaborately  ornamented, 
a  swell-front  cabinet,  and  a  tea-table. 

Confident  though  we  were,  from  past  experiences, 
that  we  should  find  many  a  specimen  of  the  old,  the 
total  of  the  enumeration  amazed  us.  It  is  putting  it 
moderately  to  say  that  in  that  one  little  village  there 
is  enough  to  stock  a  museum.  And  there  is  many  an- 
other village  with  treasure  equal  or  superior. 

It  is  not  only  the  big  but  the  little,  not  only  the 
piece  of  fine  furniture  but  the  piece  of  what  may  be 
called  kitchen  furniture,  which  one  may  unexpec- 
tedly find. 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

On  a  Westchester  road,  at  a  long  distance  from 
any  other  house,  we  once  came  across  one  of  those 
pathetic  marks  of  where  a  habitation  had  been — a 
line  of  stone  foundation  and  a  few  scattered  bricks. 
Fire  had  utterly  destroyed  the  house ;  no  attempt  had 
been  made  to  rebuild ;  the  ruins  had  been  overhauled 
with  care,  and  then  vines  had  grown  clusteringly 
over  the  burnt  stone  and  brick. 

There,  unearthed  by  some  chance,  by  the  sliding  of 
some  pile  of  ashes,  lay  a  huge  iron  gipsy  kettle  with 
three  legs.  Picturesque  in  shape  it  was  and  of  un- 
usual size.  There  was  nobody  of  whom  to  buy  it,  it 
was  as  deserted  and  lost  as  if  it  were  in  mid-ocean, 
and  so  it  went  along  with  us.  It  was  red  with  rust, 
but  a  coat  of  dead  black  transformed  it  into  a  most 
satisfactory  wood-box,  to  stand  beside  one  of  our  fire- 
places in  which  the  andirons  are  of  iron — the  wood- 
box  in  the  adjoining  room,  where  the  fireplace 
fittings  are  of  brass,  being  a  large  brass  kettle,  even 
larger  than  the  iron  one  just  described,  which  a 
farmer's  wife  gladly  disposed  of  to  us  in  exchange 
for  a  preserving  kettle  of  modern  make  purchased  for 
her  at  the  village  store;  for  there  are  many  who  are 
quite  ready  to  give  the  ancient  in  exchange  for  the 
new. 

In  one  particular,  the  vicinity  of  New  York,  es- 


NEW  YORK  AND  VICINITY 

pecially  here  and  there  on  Long  Island,  and  a  little 
in  the  Hudson  River  region  and  in  near-by  parts  of 
Westchester  County,  is  different  from  the  rest  of  the 
United  States  in  that  it  shows  more  of  the  Dutch  in- 
fluence. And  this  means  not  only  Dutch  ideas  and 
peculiarities,  as,  the  Dutch  paneled  armoires  and 
heavy  cupboards,  and  the  blue  tiles,  with  Scripture 
subjects,  around  fireplaces,  and  similar  things  to  go 
with  the  old  Dutch  "stoops,"  but  the  influence  of  the 
Orient;  for  the  Dutch,  great  traders  that  they  were, 
brought  home  with  them  from  the  East,  along  with 
the  spices  and  silks  for  which  they  more  specifically 
sailed,  specimens  of  ebony  furniture,  of  teakwood,  of 
sandalwood,  of  wicker,  and  the  grotesque  designs 
of  the  Chinese. 

The  quest  of  old-time  furniture  leads  one  into 
many  a  strange  and  interesting  place.  But  never 
was  there  a  more  picturesque  experience  encountered 
by  furniture-lovers  than  befell  us  in  the  hilly  region 
north  of  New  York  City. 

At  the  foot  of  a  long,  steep  road,  a  road  at  whose 
summit  had  taken  place  one  of  the  noted  tragedies  of 
the  Revolution,  stood  an  old  broad-fronted  house. 
It  was  on  the  verge  of  becoming  decrepit.  One  end 
had  noticeably  sagged,  and  there  was  a  tottering  nod- 
dingness  about  the  entire  structure.  On  the  door 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

was  a  fine  old  brass  eagle  knocker,  and,  wishing  to 
make  some  inquiry  about  the  roads,  it  was  gently 
touched — gently,  because  of  the  peacefulness  of  the 
ancient  house  and  of  the  environing  hills,  glorified 
by  a  sun-bright  haze. 

And  as  the  knock  at  the  door  of  an  ancient  castle 
might  be  expected  to  draw  forth  an  armored  custo- 
dian, so  this  knock  summoned  a  fitting  warder 

An  old,  old  man,  stepping  out  of  the  dim  past  into 
that  old  doorway,  appeared  there.  He  was  straight 
and  slender  and  tall.  His  hair  was  iron-gray  and 
his  black  tie  was  worn  like  an  old-time  stock.  His 
tail-coat  hung  in  full  folds  about  his  shrunken  form. 
A  distinguished-looking  man  he  was,  and  he  gave  the 
wished-for  information  in  a  soft  and  gentle  voice, 
and  with  the  manner  of  old-fashioned  courtesy. 

Asked  if  his  house  were  a  house  of  history:  "Not 
exactly,"  he  replied;  "and  yet,  many  a  man  of  his- 
tory, many  an  officer,  has  eaten  and  slept  here.  This 
was  an  inn  long  before  the  Revolution  and  during 
that  war,  and  this  road  was  one  of  the  principal  high- 
ways between  New  York  and  Connecticut.  But 
won't  you  come  in,  both  of  you?"  his  glance  taking 
in  the  waiting  figure  in  the  carriage. 

We  entered  the  hall:  a  hall  of  considerable  dig- 
nity. An  old-fashioned  lantern  hung  from  the  cen- 


NEW  YORK  AND  VICINITY 

tre,  and  a  stairway  swept  upward  with  low  and  easy 
steps.  Political  woodcuts  of  the  past  were  lined 
along  the  side  of  the  hall,  and  an  ancient  clock  ticked 
steadily  as  it  had  ticked  there  for  decades. 

In^very  room  was  some  treasure.  But,  best  of 
all,  in  a  broad,  low  room  directly  off  the  hall,  there 
was  a  carved  mantel  of  wood  and  there  was  a  rarely 
beautiful  Heppelwhite  chair  with  characteristic 
shield-back  of  fine  mahogany.  This  chair,  not 
strong  structurally,  was  very  heavy  when  lifted, 
showing  the  density  of  West  Indian  mahogany. 
There  was  a  Sheraton  side-table  with  wings  and 
reeded  legs;  in  a  cupboard  in  the  chimney-corner 
there  were  bits  of  china  which  he  lovingly  took  up 
and  told  about;  and  there  was  a  Chippendale  table, 
than  which  we  have  never  seen  one  more  beautiful, 
with  cabriole  legs,  and  claw-and-ball  feet,  and  elab- 
orate workmanship  in  every  detail;  the  edges  were 
carved  and  the  sides  were  carved  and  the  bends  of 
the  cabriole  legs  were  carved. 

He  fondled  the  old  things  caressingly,  and  spoke 
gently  of  the  past.  "I  am  ninety-three  years  old,"  he 
said  quietly. 

In  a  corner  beyond  the  marvelous  table  stood  an 
old  octagonal  mahogany  music-stand,  and  on  the 
table  lay  a  flute.  We  knew  at  once  that  it  could  be 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

only  his.     And  could  any  musical  instrument  be 
more  fitting ! 

His  eyes  lingered  lovingly  upon  it.  At  a  hint 
that  it  would  be  a  pleasure  to  hear  him,  he  took  it 
up.  Then  his  blue  eyes  grew  brighter,  his  face 
lighted  up  anew,  and  he  played  old  tunes,  ballads  of 
the  long  ago,  with  a  soft  shrilling  of  the  notes,  al- 
most as  if  a  ghost  were  playing  in  a  dream. 


[166] 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE    FIELD  IN    PHILADELPHIA   AND   VICINITY 

FOR  the  lover  of  the  old,  the  sign  of  ancient 
furniture  always  possesses  a  potential  attrac- 
tion, whether  it  be  represented  by  the  "Anti- 
chita"  of  a  back  street  in  Perugia,  the  "Anciens  Meu- 
bles"  of  Tours,  or  the  "Antiques'"  of  Fourth  Avenue 
or  Pine  Street. 

On  our  own  side  of  the  water,  antiques —of  all 
things — are  apt  to  run  in  fashions,  although  fashion 
is  supposed  to  have  nothing  to  do  except  with  the 
things  of  to-day. 

In  the  fashionable  shops,  fashion  rules  in  the  set- 
ting forth  of  the  old !  At  one  time  no  prominent  es- 
tablishment will  dare  be  without  its  pair  of  stone 
lions;  at  another  time,  the  old  stone  cistern-top  of 
Italy,  with  grooves  worn  by  the  ropes  of  centuries, 
will  be  everywhere  in  view.  One  suspects  that  the 
ropes  are  sometimes  of  the  twentieth  century,  but 

1*167] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

none  the  less,  if  there  is  a  place  to  put  it,  one  cannot 
be  in  the  fashion  without  the  stone  well-curb!  At 
another  time,  no  sign  of  stone  is  to  be  seen,  except  on 
inquiry,  and  articles  of  wood  arbitrarily  rule.  And, 
according  to  fashion,  the  ruling  wooden  furniture 
may  be  Dutch  or  French  or  our  own  Colonial. 

But  the  real  collector  cares  nothing  for  the  passing 
fashion,  and  is  therefore  likely  to  be  best  pleased 
with  the  out-of-the-way  shops  where  fashions  are  un- 
known. In  Philadelphia,  as  in  other  large  cities, 
these  are  tucked  away  in  odd  corners. 

Not  that  the  large  shops  are  to  be  arbitrarily 
avoided.  One  may  find  there  precisely  the  genuine 
bit  he  has  been  searching  for.  And  in  Philadelphia, 
on  an  average,  prices  are  likely  to  range  lower  than 
in  New  York. 

Philadelphia  and  its  vicinity  offer  a  fruitful  field. 
A  loan  exhibition  given  in  the  Germantown  quarter 
of  the  city,  only  a  few  years  ago — it  was  in  1902  — 
gave  some  indication  of  the  prodigious  number  of 
old  pieces  still  preserved.  After  all,  it  need  not  be 
wondered  at.  For  in  that  section  there  is  an  impos- 
ing array  of  Colonial  homes,  and  the  entire  city  is  a 
city  of  ancestry.  Not  only,  therefore,  did  all  the 
exhibits  have  a  local  habitation,  but  many  were  con- 
nected with  historical  names.  There  was  profusion 

[168] 


PHILADELPHIA  AND  VICINITY 

of  old  silver  and  pewter,  of  brass  and  china;  there 
was  profusion  of  swell-front  chests,  of  pieces  of  in- 
lay and  marquetry,  of  pieces  of  oak  and  walnut  and 
cherry  and  mahogany.  Naturally,  too,  there  were 
fine  sjtecimens  of  the  Windsor  chair,  Philadelphia 
being  the  city  in  which  that  style  of  chair  was  first 
made  in  this  country,  not  long  after  King  George  the 
First  established  its  vogue  in  England. 

One  knows  that  the  field  must  be  broad  in  which 
there  are  such  gleanings,  and  so  the  quest  of  old-time 
furniture  thereabouts  has  the  constant  fascination  of 
probable  success. 

When  the  breaking  up  of  some  old  family,  or  the 
death  of  its  last  representative,  brings  about  the  dis- 
persion of  old  furniture,  and  the  goods  are  to  be 
sold,  it  is  not  customary,  as  it  is  in  New  York,  to 
hold  the  sale  at  a  shop,  but  in  the  old  house  itself. 

One  such  sale,  and  it  was  typical,  was  held  not 
long  ago  in  a  house  in  the  central  part  of  what  is 
known  as  Old  Philadelphia,  near  Rittenhouse 
Square.  An  aged  spinster,  last  of  her  line,  had  died, 
and  strangers  went  tramping  through  the  house  that 
had  sheltered  her  forefathers  and  then  herself. 

Even  here,  with  the  passing  of  the  years,  the  mod- 
ern had  crept  in,  but  there  was  still  much  of  the  old, 
particularly  in  the  sitting  room,  which,  in  accordance 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

with  ancient  Philadelphia  custom,  was  situated  on 
the  second  floor  of  the  extension,  above  the  dining- 
room: — this  situation  of  the  sitting  room  of  the  old 
families  giving  that  darkened  effect  to  the  houses, 
after  nightfall,  that  so  puzzles  visitors  from  other 
cities. 

There  were  book-cases,  and  tables,  and  chairs; 
there  was  a  rare  dressing-glass,  in  old  lacquer;  there 
was  a  fire-screen,  a  tiny  square  of  mahogany,  which 
pushed  up  and  down,  adjustably,  upon  a  slender 
spindle ;  and  there  was  some  of  the  rare  Belleek  ware, 
made  in  Ireland  half  a  century  ago;  a  tea  service, 
cups  and  saucers  and  teapot  and  bowl,  all  of  the  dis- 
tinguished Belleek  shape,  low,  squat,  and  broad: — a 
kind  of  ware  whose  manufacture  has  been  revived  in 
Ireland,  of  late  years,  and  is  coming  again  upon  the 
market. 

In  the  numberless  little  trips  which  may  be  made 
in  the  vicinity  of  Philadelphia  the  impression  of  the 
existence  of  a  great  quantity  of  old-time  material,  in 
private  houses  and  in  shops,  is  confirmed. 

At  a  town  upon  the  Delaware,  less  than  an  hour 
by  rail  from  the  city,  we  found  a  curious  little  wist- 
ful-faced, droop-shouldered  man;  silent,  rather;  al- 
most shy,  indeed.  His  shop  seemed  to  have  but  lit- 
tle in  it.  A  few  candlesticks,  a  piece  or  two  of  ma- 

[170] 


PHILADELPHIA  AND  VICINITY 

hogany,  some  china  which,  if  one  were  disposed  to 
be  captious,  might  scoffingly  be  set  down  as  modern 
reproduction. 

At  jjrst  the  man  was  torpidly  indifferent ;  but  we 
knew  of  him  by  reputation  and  therefore  knew  that 
there  was  more  to  him  and  to  his  ancient  furnishings 
than  appeared  upon  the  surface.  But  nothing  had 
given  a  hint  of  what  was  really  to  come. 

Slowly  he  thawed;  slowly  he  perceived  that  he 
was  talking  to  some  one  who  appreciated  and  cared; 
and  he  led  the  way  into  a  long  and  narrow  room  be- 
hind his  little  shop.  It  was  full  of  treasures;  and 
then  he  led  the  way  upstairs,  through  his  living 
rooms,  and  into  apartments  filled  to  overflowing 
with  ancient  things,  where  old  cupboards  and  secre- 
tary drawers  hid  quantities  of  glass  and  genuine 
deep  blue  china. 

Then  down  the  street  we  went  with  him,  and 
through  a  passageway,  into  a  cold  and  drafty  barn 
crowded  full  with  antiquities. 

In  one  of  the  dark  corners  stood,  side  by  side,  a 
high-boy  and  a  chest-on-chest,  names  often  used  in- 
terchangeably, although,  properly  speaking,  a  chest- 
on-chest  comes  practically  to  the  ground,  whereas  a 
high-boy  leaves  sufficient  space  for  cabriole  legs. 

This  high-boy  was  one  with  its  top  constructed  for 

[171] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

the  display  of  china,  and  in  appearance  it  was  not 
much  later  than  the  date  at  which  high-boys  first  ap- 
peared; that  is,  about  the  beginning  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century.  The  chest-on-chest  was  of  a  later 
date;  naturally  enough,  as,  although  there  were  a 
few  in  use  by  1 750,  they  did  not  become  at  all  com- 
mon before  the  time  of  the  Revolution. 

Then  there  was  an  odd  interlude.  There  was  still 
more  to  show,  he  said,  but  he  had  promised  to  act  as 
pall-bearer  at  a  funeral  and  he  hoped  that  we  would 
excuse  him  for  a  while.  He  assumed  black  hat, 
black  coat,  and  air  of  decent  mournfulness,  and 
we  watched  him  go  away.  With  an  open  trust  much 
at  variance  with  his  initial  and  almost  churlish  tor- 
pidity, he  offered  to  leave  us  in  charge  of  one  of  his 
places,  to  look  about,  while  he  was  away!  But  we 
did  not  wish  to  remain  as  guardians  in  his  absence, 
and  therefore  interested  ourselves  in  the  task,  that  at 
first  seemed  hopeless,  of  finding  an  attractive  lunch- 
eon: and  found,  after  a  while,  a  wonderful  darky, 
in  an  unpromising  looking  place,  who  gave  us  delec- 
table deviled  crabs  and  other  fruit  of  the  sea. 

Then  back  from  the  funeral  came  the  dealer;  but 
not  until  he  was  out  of  his  black  clothes  and  their 
concomitant  mournfulness  was  he  himself  again. 

This  time  he  led  us  to  a  boathouse,  with  a  shaky 


eg. 


PHILADELPHIA  AND  VICINITY 

floor,  where  through  great  ragged  holes  we  could  see 
the  Delaware  coursing  beneath.  Here  were  gath- 
ered mqpy  additional  pieces  of  the  old  and  valuable. 
Once,  in  New  York,  we  came  upon  a  corner-cup- 
board holding  up  a  roof  which  had  settled  down 
upon  it ;  once  in  New  Jersey,  we  looked  at  a  chest  of 
drawers,  with  a  serpentine  front,  which  stood  in  a 
corner  where  the  floor  was  dangerously  sinking;  and 
here,  on  the  Delaware,  were  pieces  of  furniture 
which  threatened  to  fall  into  the  river  if  we  should 
step  across  the  shaky  floor  to  reach  them. 

There  were  chairs  needing  faith  as  well  as  works 
to  restore  them,  there  were  candlestands  which,  re- 
versing nature's  law,  could  maintain  a  balance  only 
when  standing  on  their  heads.  Everything  was  as 
he  had  obtained  it ;  nothing  had  been  repaired,  noth- 
ing restored.  But  in  spite  of  a  glad  willingness  to 
show  his  wares  to  those  who  would  appreciate,  it 
was  clear  enough  that  his  personal  desire,  apart  from 
needful  considerations  of  prosaic  dollars,  was  to 
hoard  and  not  to  sell. 

In  truth,  this  man  and  his  establishment  were  cur- 
iously, in  character,  like  the  old  collector  and  his 
rambling  warerooms  on  Long  Island;  and  since  doc- 
tors are  a  class  by  themselves,  and  lawyers  and 
business  men  and  mechanics,  why  should  there  not 

[175] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

be  distinctive  traits  about  a  class  who  handle  and 
sell  the  old  for  the  love  of  it ! 

If  one  is  to  consider  all  of  Pennsylvania  as  being 
in  the  vicinity  of  Philadelphia,  it  opens  a  wide  field. 
The  line  of  southern  counties  is  rich  in  articles  of  the 
early  time,  and  one  may  go  as  far  as  Westmoreland 
County  and  the  Ligonier  valley,  where  the  stone 
houses,  stone  chimneyed,  give  a  not  misleading  prom- 
ise of  early  treasures,  or  even  so  far  as  that  region  of 
homely  and  delightful  romance,  Mrs.  Deland's  "Old 
Chester."  One  may  explore  the  south  and  west  of 
Pennsylvania  with  deep  pleasure  in  the  exploration 
and  with  satisfaction  in  results;  but  it  is  not  posi- 
tively needful  that  one  should  go  so  far;  there  is 
much  to  be  had  within  easy  distance  of  Philadelphia. 

We  wandered  at  random,  one  autumn  day, 
through  a  charming  inland  town,  some  twenty-five 
miles  from  the  city.  Old  trees  shaded  the  old  houses 
and  old-fashioned  flowers  bloomed  in  the  old  gar- 
dens. 

We  turned  a  corner,  rounding  a  large  and  com- 
fortable house,  and  saw,  standing  within  a  porch  of 
generous  proportions  at  the  side,  a  thin  and  fluttery 
elderly  little  Quakeress. 

She  was  talking  with  a  townsman,  who  was  halt- 
ing with  reluctant  feet,  looking  back  longingly  at  a 

[176] 


PHILADELPHIA  AND  VICINITY 

bundle  of  magazines  which  he  had  just  set  down, 
and  trying  to  overcome  his  cautious  frugality. 

"The^  may  take  them  or  leave  them,  just  as  thee 
chooses,"  said  the  little  Quaker  lady,  bringing  the 
incident  to  a  close  with  a  mild  peremptoriness  under 
which  the  man  went  shamefacedly  away. 

It  was  evident  that  at  this  house,  although  there 
was  no  sign  or  announcement,  something  was  being 
sold.  If  one  thing,  why  not  another4?  And  it  was 
a  charming  house,  with  charming  possibilities. 

And  so  one  of  us  stepped  inside,  and  the  Quaker- 
ess stood  smiling  a  greeting  from  the  top  of  the  few 
steps. 

"Can  you  tell  me  if  any  one  in  this  town  has  a 
claw-footed  sofa,  and  would  be  willing  to  part  with 
itV 

"We  have  one  here,  and  are  willing  to  sell  it  to 
thee,"  was  the  reply. 

She  asked  us  in,  and  called  her  husband. 

And  we  saw,  directly  facing  us,  set  in  front  of  a 
closed  fireplace,  precisely  such  a  sofa  as  we  were  in 
search  of.  In  every  particular  it  answered  the  re- 
quirements which  we  had  in  mind.  It  was  eight 
feet  long,  inside  measurement.  It  was  done  in  dark 
leather,  however,  rather  worn  by  years  of  use,  in- 
stead of  its  original  covering.  It  was  a  thing  of 

[177] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

perfect  lines  and  curves.  It  had  claw  feet,  and 
above  them  were  elaborately  broad  and  spreading 
wings.  Each  arm  was  in  a  superb  double  curve, 
and  the  faces  of  the  arms  were  beautifully  carved  in 
acanthus  leaves,  with  the  carving  narrowing  and 
broadening  to  follow  the  changing  line  of  the  wood. 
The  back  was  elaborately  carved  from  end  to  end, 
with  a  charming  interrupted  roll  in  the  middle.  At 
each  end,  under  the  lower  curve  of  the  arm,  was  a 
space  for  one  of  the  old-fashioned  hard  cylinder  pil- 
lows— a  fashion  of  much  older  date  than  this  sofa, 
but  revived  a  century  ago — but  we  discarded  the  pil- 
lows as  the  sofa  was  finer  and  in  better  proportion 
without  them. 

This  sofa  had  been  used  by  the  two  Quakers  for 
thirty  years,  and  before  that  had  been  in  possession 
of  the  one  from  whom  they  obtained  it  for  some 
forty-odd  years;  tracing  back  the  pedigree,  thus,  to 
1830.  Previous  to  1830  there  is  no  record  of  it; 
but  it  could  scarcely  have  been  much  more  than 
twenty  years  old  at  that  time,  as  it  is  of  early  Em- 
pire style. 

The  Quakers  showed  us  through  their  house ;  they 
had  decided  to  sell  what  they  had,  and  give  up 
housekeeping,  although  they  had  been  housekeeping 
all  their  married  life.  We  went  from  room  to  room, 

[178] 


3    T3 

1 ! 


•"      rt 
-O     <u 


I  3 
3  I 


li 


C     rt 

^ 


PHILADELPHIA  AND  VICINITY 

and  up  waxed  stairs,  and  saw  old-time  bits  at  every 
turn,  on  every  side.  And  again  we  thought,  what 
quantities  of  old  furniture  still  exist,  when  this 
house,  found  so  entirely  by  lucky  fortune,  was  but 
one  out  of  many. 

The  sofa  was  not  the  only  article  that  was  ob- 
tained from  them.  We  secured  a  high-boy,  well 
over  the  century  mark  in  age,  and  worthy  of  its 
name,  it  being  more  than  six  feet  high.  It  is  of  wal- 
nut, with  wealth  of  drawers  graduated  in  size. 
Bandy-legged  it  is,  and  has  web  feet;  web  as  distin- 
guished from  claw,  the  rib  of  the  toes  being  indica- 
ted instead  of  completely  carved;  a  style  often  used 
on  fine  old  pieces  from  their  being  considered  less 
breakable  than  the  claw-and-ball. 

And  now,  here  is  the  strangest  part  of  a  strange 
story.  The  two  Quakers  sold  scarcely  anything  be- 
sides what  they  sold  to  us.  Ready  to  dispose  of 
their  old  treasures  as  they  were,  they  were  ready  for 
a  short  time  only.  Whatever  had  turned  them  in 
that  direction  was  so  soon  and  so  completely  altered 
as  to  cause  them  to  decide  to  keep  their  home  and  all 
their  household  goods,  after  all.  Surely  an  old- fur- 
niture providence  watches  over  the  ardent  collector. 

They  felt  no  regret  for  having  sold  to  us ;  at  least, 
if  they  did  they  stoutly  maintained  to  the  contrary, 

[181] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

and  they  wished  nothing  undone  that  had  been  done. 
Only  no  more  was  to  be  sold,  whether  to  ourselves 
or  to  any  one  else. 

And  we  found  that  we  had  made  two  delightful 
friends,  of  tastes  congenial;  friends  whom  it  is  a 
pleasure  to  meet  and  to  hear  from.  "We  were  sorry 
to  have  missed  you  the  other  afternoon"  —  in  such 
wise  writes  the  old  gentleman.  "Come  again;  come 
again  on  the  first  day  of  the  week.  For  in  the 
Friends'  calendar  the  first  day  of  the  week  is  conse- 
crated to  the  social  amenities." 


CHAPTER  X 

IN   VIRGINIA   AND  DELAWARE 

IT  was  eighty-seven  years  ago  that  Sydney  Smith 
penned  his  famous  gibe  upon  all  American  books 
and  statuary  and  plays  and  pictures ;  though  why 
he  should  have  been  so  sweeping  is  not  altogether 
apparent,  for  in  the  very  year  that  he  wrote  his  gibe 
there  died  an  American  painter,  Benjamin  West,  a 
native  of  Pennsylvania,  who  had  been  honored  with 
membership  in  the  academies  of  Florence,  Bologna 
and  Parma  and  had  been  president  of  the  Royal 
Academy. 

At  least  the  witty  Englishman  said  nothing  in 
criticism  of  American  furniture;  although  he  proba- 
bly did  not  know  that  there  had  been  many  an  Amer- 
ican cabinet-maker  who  had  done  fine  and  artistic 
work.  Nor  was  all  the  work  merely  copies  of  forms 
from  abroad,  for  the  American  alertness  and  origin- 
ality of  spirit  caused  the  adaptation  and  alteration 

[183] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

of  English,  Dutch  and  French  forms,  and  even  their 
improvement,  as  with  the  shapes  of  Empire  when 
that  style  was  declining  in  Europe. 

In  both  the  North  and  the  South  a  great  propor- 
tion of  the  furniture  was  made  by  native  cabinet- 
makers, even  before  the  Revolution;  and  after  the 
war  importation  still  more  decreased. 

In  the  South,  however,  the  proportion  of  native- 
made  furniture  was  never  so  great  as  in  the  North, 
and  therefore  in  the  South  there  is  more  probability 
of  finding  specimens  of  English,  Dutch  or  French 
manufacture,  more  likelihood  of  picking  up  an  Eng- 
lish Chippendale  or  Sheraton  or  a  French  Empire  in- 
stead of  one  of  American  make. 

The  lists  of  cabinet-makers  of  a  century  or  more 
ago  in  the  different  cities  do  not,  at  first  sight,  seem 
to  bear  out  the  idea  of  a  distinct  difference  in  the 
two  sections  of  the  country  in  the  matter  of  furni- 
ture making,  for  comparison  of  the  number  of 
Charleston  cabinet-makers  with  those  of  Boston,  or 
those  of  New  York  with  those  of  Baltimore,  does 
not  exhibit  any  marked  unlikeness.  But  the  shops 
in  the  Northern  cities  averaged  a  larger  size,  or  at 
least  more  of  an  annual  output;  and,  more  impor- 
tant than  this,  there  were  great  numbers  of  makers 
of  furniture  scattered  through  a  host  of  little  towns 


IN  VIRGINIA  AND  DELAWARE 

and  villages  in  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  and 
New  England,  whereas  in  the  South  there  were  com- 
paratively few  outside  of  the  larger  places. 

There  was  some  degree  of  importation  into  Vir- 
ginia and  the  Carol inas,  from  the  other  side  of  Ma- 
son and  Dixon's  line,  but  this  was  never  extremely 
popular;  if  furniture  was  to  be  imported  it  might  as 
well  be  imported  from  Europe ;  the  sense  of  close  and 
personal  and  friendly  connection  with  England  en- 
dured in  the  South  much  longer  than  in  the  North. 

A  narrow  and  uncompromising  critic,  writing  two 
hundred  years  ago  of  his  impressions  of  Virginia,  and 
not  understanding  that  a  region  of  plantations  could 
not  fairly  be  expected  to  manufacture  as  much  as 
other  parts  of  the  country,  complained  bitterly  of  the 
Virginians  that  "though  their  country  be  overrun 
with  wood,  yet  they  have  all  their  wooden  ware  from 
England — their  cabinets,  chairs,  tables,  stools, 
chests."  Less  of  it  remains  than  might  be  expected 
from  the  splendid  furnishings  recorded  of  some  of 
the  great  houses.  But  those  were  the  exceptions, 
and  as  an  offset  many  a  house  went  bare  enough. 
After  all,  the  greatest  amount  of  old  furniture,  as  a 
total,  in  the  Northern  States  and  Colonies,  was  in 
the  homes  of  the  middle  class ;  a  class  which,  practi- 
cally, did  not  exist  in  the  South. 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

That  Washington,  at  Mount  Vernon,  had  chairs 
alone  that  were  valued  at  nearly  seven  hundred  dol- 
lars, does  not  imply  that  Virginia  was  filled  to  over- 
flowing with  fine  chairs. 

And  there  is  a  grim  reason  why  much  of  the  splen- 
did furniture  that  once  existed  in  the  South  has  dis- 
appeared— that  is,  the  ravages  of  two  wars.  In  this 
respect  almost  all  of  the  South  was  more  or  less  af- 
fected. 

In  Northern  Georgia,  along  the  line  of  Fed- 
eral advance,  it  may  almost  be  said  that  scarcely 
a  house  of  importance  was  left  standing,  and,  "They 
do  say,"  observed  the  late  Henry  Grady  of  Atlanta, 
at  a  banquet,  as  he  turned  to  General  Sherman,  "that 
you  were  rather  careless  with  fire !" 

In  the  vicinity  of  Harper's  Ferry,  where  old 
houses  were  allowed  to  remain  they  were  mostly 
stripped  of  old  furniture;  and  the  region  where 
Grant  and  Lee  struggled  was  sadly  devastated. 

Now  and  then  a  piece  escaped  destruction  by  a 
curious  chance.  A  family  in  Charleston  proudly 
preserves  a  fine  bookcase  whose  drawers  are  not  the 
original  ones — those  having  been  destroyed  by  the 
British,  who  used  them  as  horse-troughs ! 

Naturally,  in  the  War  of  the  Revolution  the 
North  also  suffered;  and  an  angry  letter  from  Han- 

[186] 


IN  VIRGINIA  AND  DELAWARE 

x 

cock,  he  of  the  great  signature,  voices  his  lament  that 
British  officers,  using  his  house,  had  "defaced  and 
removed"  his  carpets!  "And  I  must  submit,"  he 
bitterly  concludes.  One  wonders  what  he  would 
have  done  and  said  if  his  house  had  been  burned,  as 
were  those  along  the  coast  of  Long  Island  Sound,  in 
the  foray  of  Arnold,  or  those  of  the  lower  part  of 
New  York  City  during  the  British  occupation. 

And  the  South,  lamenting  with  justice  the  destruc- 
tion by  fire  in  the  wars,  at  least  escaped  one  exper- 
ience of  old  Marblehead,  where,  one  wild  winter  in 
the  middle  of  the  Revolutionary  War,  snow  fell 
so  deeply  that  the  people  were  unable  to  obtain  wood 
and  were  forced  to  burn  even  chests  of  drawers  and 
other  furniture. 

But  in  the  South,  in  spite  of  the  extirpatory  ex- 
periences of  war  added  to  the  usual  wear  and  tear  of 
time,  there  are  great  numbers  of  fine  pieces  still  to 
be  found.  Even  the  most  fortunate  collector  must 
not  hope  to  come  upon  some  piece  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  as  he  may  still  hope  to  do  in  New  England; 
but  he  may  find  wide  variety  and  richness  of  beauty. 

And  one  must  not  confine  his  search  only  to 
houses  of  age  or  pretension.  As  with  the  man  with 
the  heirlooms  in  the  cabin  near  the  battlefield,  there 
are  things  to  be  found  in  shabby  places,  the  original 

[  187  ] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

houses  having  been  destroyed;  and  in  many  a  negro 
cabin  there  may  be  found  some  broken,  almost  worn- 
out,  but  still  beautiful,  specimen  of  attractive  old 
furniture. 

This  came  about  with  perfect  naturalness.  A 
piece  of  furniture  past  its  usefulness,  ready  to  be  re- 
placed by  a  new  piece,  would  not  be  made  into  kind- 
ling, would  not  be  put  away  in  a  corner  of  the  barn. 
It  would  be  passed  ahead  to  favored  slaves,  just  as 
coats  and  dresses  were  tossed  to  them.  Most  of  the 
furniture  so  given  away  has  been  completely  worn 
out  and  destroyed;  but  enough  remains  to  be  a 
highly  desirable  object  of  search.  And,  besides 
what  was  given  to  the  colored  folk  in  the  days  of 
prosperity,  they  gathered  and  took  to  their  huts 
many  a  piece  when  the  mansions  were  looted  and  de- 
stroyed. Negroes  are  apt  to  be  careless  in  breaking 
and  handling  furniture  in  their  own  homes,  but  at 
the  same  time  they  have  a  curious  instinct  for  pre- 
serving things,  even  when  broken,  hence  the  value 
of  this  hint  in  regard  to  their  possession  of  ancient 
pieces. 

One  of  our  tilting-tables,  a  real  beauty,  came  from 
a  negro  home  in  Virginia;  it  was  in  sad  shape,  but 
capable  of  repair. 

And  from  a  cabin  in  Virginia  there  came  one  of 

[188] 


r  1 


IN  VIRGINIA  AND  DELAWARE 

the  very  finest  sideboards  that  we  have  ever  seen; 
much  like,  in  general  design,  the  beautiful  one  in 
the  collection  at  Stenton. 

It  is  of  mahogany,  of  Sheraton  type,  and  has 
felicitous  recesses  and  charming  curves  and  manifold 
drawers. 

It  was  discovered  in  its  sordid  condition  and  en- 
vironment by  a  friendly  acquaintance  of  ours,  in 
whom  age  had  not  withered  enthusiasm.  He  pur- 
chased it  for  two  dollars — two  dollars! — and  sent 
it  to  his  home  in  the  North. 

It  was  a  melancholy  wreck.  One  of  the  delicate 
fluted  legs  was  broken  off  and  lost.  Much  of  the 
sideboard  was  a  smear  of  molasses  and  bacon  and 
grease.  The  deep  receptacles  for  wine  bottles  had 
long  been  used  as  bins  for  corn  meal  and  brown 
sugar,  and  had  been  cut  and  slivered  by  scoops  and 
spoons.  There  was  ruin  and  uncleanliness.  It  re- 
quired elaborate  repairing  and  entire  polishing.  But 
when  the  repairing  and  polishing  were  done  the  side- 
board was  a  beauty ! 

The  fortunate  finder  was  old.  Knowing  that  we 
wished  to  possess  just  such  a  sideboard  as  this,  he 
said  that  it  should  come  to  us  at  his  death.  We  did 
not  know  him  intimately;  there  was  but  the  friendly 
tie  of  fellow-collectors.  So  there  was  no  thought  of 

[191] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

taking  it  as  a  gift.  And,  indeed,  there  were  rela- 
tives in  regard  to  whom  he  wished  to  present  a  clear 
front  financially.  So  he  told  his  intended  executor 
the  very  reasonable  sum  that  was  to  be  paid  by  us  for 
the  sideboard  upon  his  death. 

Meanwhile  we  came  to  know,  and  to  smile  at,  the 
whimsy  of  certain  friends  of  ours  who,  waiting  for 
the  death  of  a  distant  relative  who  was  to  bequeath 
them  her  library,  took  unto  themselves  no  books 
whatever,  although,  their  relative  being  but  fifty 
years  of  age,  they  passed  by  many  a  need  and  many 
a  chance. 

But  it  did  not  occur  to  us  that  we  were  leaning 
upon  a  still  more  fragile  reed.  Sideboards  flashed  be- 
fore our  vision,  desirable  sideboards,  Heppelwhite, 
Empire  and  nondescript,  which  we  might  have  had 
for  the  metaphorical  song;  but  we  would  none  of 
them,  waiting  as  we  were  for  the  still  more  beautiful 
one !  But  we  learned  never  to  put  off  till  to-morrow 
what  can  be  bought  to-day. 

We  went  abroad;  in  our  absence  the  intended  ex- 
ecutor died;  our  kindly  acquaintance  himself  then 
died;  there  was  no  written  memorandum  of  his  in- 
tention; and,  one  of  his  distant  relatives  becoming 
executor,  took  such  a  fancy  to  the  sideboard  that  he 
bought  it  in  for  himself ! 

[192] 


IN  VIRGINIA  AND  DELAWARE 

x 

And  so,  we  who  had  so  well  learned  the  necessity 
of  acting  when  a  bargain  offers,  had  not  only, 
through  no  fault  of  ours,  lost  that  most  desirable 
sideboard,  but,  distinctly  through  our  own  fault,  had 
let  slip  opportunities  to  obtain  something  nearly  as 
good. 

Although  there  is  general  harmony  of  style  in  the 
furniture  of  the  North  and  the  South,  there  are  at 
the  same  time  some  interesting  differences.  New 
Orleans,  though  not  so  rich  in  the  old  as  would  be 
expected  from  its  history  and  from  the  extent  of  its 
old  French  Quarter,  still  shows  more  of  the  furniture 
of  Louis  Quinze  and  Louis  Seize  than  does  any  other 
part  of  the  country.  In  the  South  there  are  more 
couch-chairs  than  in  the  North;  the  chaise-longue 
of  the  French,  long  and  narrow,  with  a  piece  like 
a  chair-back  at  one  end.  In  the  South,  too,  there 
are  more  of  what  are  known  as  double-chairs,  a  self- 
descriptive  name.  In  Virginia  and  Maryland  one 
may  sometimes  find  an  Empire  sideboard  .with  a  mir- 
ror at  the  back.  There  are  more  corner-cupboards 
in  the  South  with  glass  in  the  front  of  the  lower  half 
of  the  cupboard,  than  in  the  North;  although  it  is 
not  customary  with  Southerners  to  term  them  corner- 
cupboards,  but  beaufaits  or  buffets;  bo-fat  being  a 
customary  local  pronunciation  in  Virginia.  The 

[195] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

dinner-wagon,  too,  may  be  considered  a  Southern 
institution  and  name,  it  being  a  double-decker  side- 
table. 

In  a  Virginia  house,  in  the  lower  Shenandoah  re- 
gion, we  came  across  an  old  lustre  pitcher  of  unusual 
size.  It  held  at  least  a  quart  and  a  pint,  instead  of 
being  of  the  small  capacity  of  most  of  the  pitchers  of 
this  ware.  The  owner,  an  old  man  living  solitary 
there,  was  glad  to  sell  it  for  a  dollar. 

But,  noticing  something  in  the  bottom,  beneath 
the  accumulated  dust  of  years,  one  of  us  took  it  out 
and  handed  it  to  him.  It  was  a  piece  of  linen  lace 
and  a  pair  of  knitting  needles. 

A  change  came  over  the  old  man's  face.  He 
spoke  in  a  low  voice,  with  a  sort  of  awe.  "This  is 

what  my  wife  was  working  on  when "  And  as 

he  turned  the  pieces  over,  and  looked  at  them  and  at 
the  pitcher  in  which  they  had  so  long  been  hidden, 
his  mind  was  busy  with  the  past.  It  was  clear,  too, 
that  he  would  be  heartbroken  at  losing,  now,  that  old 
pitcher  which  his  wife  had  used  for  that  final  putting 
away:  a  putting  away  which  was  to  have  been  but 
for  an  hour  or  two!  He  did  not  ask  that  we  con- 
sider the  sale  unmade;  but  when  the  pitcher  was  of- 
fered to  him  again  he  eagerly  grasped  it,  with  a 
grievous  sort  of  joy 

[194] 


IN  VIRGINIA  AND  DELAWARE 

It  was  also  not  far  from  the  Shenandoah,  ravaged 
as  the  entire  region  was  by  war,  that  we  discovered 
half  a  dozen  old  blue  sugar-bowls,  in  a  row  upon  a 
window  sill.  And  each  bowl  had  a  hole  in  its 
bottom!  No;  nothing  to  do  with  war  or  soldiers- 
it  was  only  that  the  owner  had  made  them  into 
flowerpots ! 

In  the  ever  delightful  Old  Dominion,  there  are 
many  fascinating  and  romantic  houses  which  have 
withstood  time  and  war.  Some  of  them  are  shat- 
tered, unrestored,  still  in  disrepair,  waiting  for  hap- 
pier days;  as,  one  of  the  most  famous  old  mansions, 
with  wainscoting  and  wine  cellars  and  broad  stair- 
cases and  oak  floors  and  many-paned  windows, 
where  the  present  occupants  have  a  tin  bath-tub  sus- 
pended by  rope  and  pulley  from  the  ceiling  of  the 
hall.  The  explanation  is  divertingly  simple.  It  is 
because  of  leaky  roof  and  rains!  During  a  long 
storm,  that  tub  is  likely  to  be  more  than  once  filled, 
and  each  time,  as  the  water  reaches  the  running  over 
point,  it  is  lowered  and  emptied  and  drawn  up  again 
— and  all  without  a  particle  of  embarrassment  on 
the  part  of  any  one,  but  as  if  the  whole  world  were 
in  the  habit  of  thus  treating  leaks ! 

In  the  vicinity  of  old  Smithfield,  that  little  town 
famous  for  its  hams  and  its  church  by  Sir  Christo- 

,[  195  ] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

pher  Wren,  there  are  many  things  to  be  found.  And, 
indeed,  the  whole  region  round  about  Williamsburg, 
the  early  capital  of  the  Commonwealth,  repays  a 
search.  It  is  fitting  that  in  a  town  where  there  is  a 
"Palace  Green,"  and  a  "Duke  of  Gloucester 
Street,"  there  should  still  be  some  of  the  fine  old 
houses;  it  is  fortunate  that  this  ancient  Colonial  re- 
gion was  not  so  greatly  harried  and  burned  in  the 
Civil  War.  And  a  most  slender-legged  Heppel- 
white  card-table  (one  of  a  pair),  with  charming 
curves,  discovered  upon  the  side  porch  of  a  house, 
with  a  water  bucket  set  upon  it,  shows  that  here,  as 
in  so  many  places,  it  is  a  matter  of  keeping  ever  on 
the  alert. 

It  was  from  a  negro  cabin  hereabouts  that  we  se- 
cured a  good  brass  candlestick. 

"But  is  n't  there  a  pair  of  them"?" 

"Yes,  suh,"  the  young  negro  woman  drawled, 
"but  it 's  in  the  pickle  barrel." 

"Lost,  you  mean?" 

"No,  suh;  gran'ma'  s  a  pow'ful  han'  at  makin' 
pickles;  they  ain't  nobody  makes  'em  as  green!"  she 
said  proudly.  "An'  she  greens  'em  by  keepin'  the 
can'lestick  in  among  'em,  suh!" 

Delaware,  it  would  almost  seem,  is  too  small  a 
State  to  consider  very  specially;  but  it  is  temptingly 

[196] 


A  pair  of  card  tables,  inlaid  in  satin  wood ;  one  of  them  "  found  on  a  porch  with  a 
water  bucket " 


An  inlaid  Heppelwhite  sideboard 
Heppelwhite  Furniture,  from  Virginia 


IN  VIRGINIA  AND  DELAWARE 

easy  of  access  from  some  of  the  large  cities,  and  its 
very  smallness  has  preserved  it  from  too  close  an  ex- 
amination by  collectors.  The  entire  State  gives  the 
impression  of  being  one  long  sloping  bank,  rising 
easily  from  the  water  and  dotted  with  houses,  many 
of  them  old. 

Not  every  one,  however,  can  hope  to  be  so  fortu- 
nate there  as  a  friend,  a  Western  man,  who  went 
into  Delaware  distinctly  on  a  search  for  the  old,  and 
picked  up  a  set  of  eight  beautiful  Sheraton  chairs, 
two  of  them  armchairs,  for  a  dollar  and  a  quarter 
each! 

This  friend,  a  professional  man  in  active  practice 
in  a  Western  city,  has  an  admirable  method  of  pro- 
cedure. He  takes  a  trip  every  year  or  so  into  some 
old-furniture  region,  carefully  choosing  the  most 
promising  place.  Some  little  time  before  he  goes  he 
has  a  newspaper  of  that  neighborhood,  usually  the 
principal  newspaper  of  a  county  seat,  insert  a  notice 
that  he  wishes  to  procure  an  old  table,  a  chest  of 
drawers,  a  sideboard,  or  whatever  he  most  desires. 
Answers  to  his  advertisement  are  to  be  addressed  to 
his  initials,  in  care  of  the  newspaper,  so  that  those 
who  reply  will  have  no  idea  that  he  is  a  man  out  of 
the  West,  for  that  would  materially  increase  the 
prices,  human  nature  being  what  it  is. 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

He  goes  to  the  town ;  he  inquires  for  his  letters  at 
the  newspaper  office.  The  editor  is  almost  always 
glad  to  gossip  with  him  about  furniture  in  the  vicin- 
ity, feeling  that  he  has  been  taken  into  his  confi- 
dence. He  goes  to  see  those  whose  answers  promise 
well;  and,  with  all  this  as  a  foundation,  he  is  likely 
to  find  precisely  what  he  is  looking  for,  and  at  least 
gains  a  wide  knowledge  of  the  furniture  of  that  par- 
ticular countryside. 

Delaware  is  not  among  the  most  beautiful  of  the 
States;  but  there  hangs  about  it  an  all-pervasive  odor 
of  peaches,  and  the  thought  brings  up  the  memory  of 
the  sight  of  endless  lines  of  heaping  peach  baskets, 
set  out  in  the  market  centres  to  which  the  peach 
growers  resort. 

We  feel  warm  and  cordial  toward  the  little  State, 
for  it  has  been  good  to  us,  in  furniture,  out  of  all 
proportion  to  its  size,  even  though  we  did  not  have 
our  friend's  luck  in  finding  Sheraton  chairs. 

We  gathered  a  charming  pair  of  candlesticks,  of 
brass,  small,  and  with  fluted  pillars,  for  but  thirty 
cents  each.  And  a  candle-stand,  of  mahogany,  of 
exquisitely  dainty  shape — wanting  one  foot  out  of 
three,  but  that  was  a  small  matter — cost  but  half  a 
dollar.  It  is  always  a  pleasure  to  find  a  "bargain," 
if  you  do  not  have  to  feel  that  you  have  "beaten 
[200] 


IN  VIRGINIA  AND  DELAWARE 

down,"  but  that  the  seller  is  as  pleased  as  yourself 
with  the  price. 

We  remember,  too,  besides  various  old  houses  of 
the  State,  a  shop  surely  unique — an  auction  shop 
whose  proprietor  is  of  spiritual  kin  to  the  old  furni- 
ture men  of  Pennsylvania  and  New  York  of  whom 
we  have  already  told; — an  auction  shop  which  is  a 
succession  of  warerooms  of  old  furniture ;  not,  all  of 
it,  old  in  the  sense  of  being  Colonial  or  Empire,  but 
where,  in  this  room  or  that,  you  come  upon  some  real 
treasure  which  the  proprietor  has  gathered  in  and 
which  he  is  in  no  hurry  to  sell.  Through  one  room 
after  another,  one  wanders  back  through  the  unpre- 
tentious establishment,  and  must  surely  come  away 
with  something  desirable.  For  our  part,  we  secured 
a  mahogany  low-boy,  inlaid  with  satin-wood.  It  is 
a  straight-legged  Heppelwhite,  with  two  drawers  at 
either  side  and  one  across  the  top,  and  an  arching 
opening  for  the  knees.  It  was  a  wreck,  as  is  usual 
with  the  pieces  of  this  type  of  dealer. 

And  we  have,  too,  from  Delaware,  a  corner  wash- 
stand,  a  dainty  Sheraton;  and  in  Delaware  we 
also  secured  an  old-time  washbowl  to  fit  the  opening 
in  the  stand. 

Throughout  much  of  the  South  it  is  possible  to 
pursue  a  line  of  collecting  which  admirably  supple- 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

ments  that  of  old  furniture;  in  a  broad  sense  it  is 
really  furniture. 

In  many  a  little  village,  and  in  many  an  isolated 
mountain  home,  the  old-time  art  of  making  patch- 
work coverlets  is  remembered  and  practised.  Some 
may  be  found  that  are  generations  old;  others  are 
new,  but  made  in  precisely  the  old-time  way,  and 
after  the  same  patterns. 

Many  are  in  gorgeous  colors,  in  glowing  yellows 
and  greens  and  purples;  and,  being  a  matter  of 
housewifely  pride,  they  are  often  thrown  with  osten- 
tatious carelessness  over  the  "gallery  rail"  so  that 
their  glory  may  be  seen. 

At  a  little  inn  at  King's  Mountain,  not  far  from 
the  famous  battlefield,  the  bed  of  state  had  upon 
it  precisely  nineteen  coverlets!  There  was  no 
thought  that  any  mortal  could  or  would  sleep  be- 
neath such  a  padded  mountain.  But  it  was  the  most 
natural  method  of  display,  and  an  admirable  talent 
and  an  admirable  display  it  was.  Each  quilt  had 
its  name.  There  were  the  Western  Star,  the  Rose 
of  the  Carolinas,  the  Log  Cabin,  the  Virginia  Gen- 
tleman, the  Fruit  Basket,  the  Lily  of  the  Valley — in 
short,  there  were  just  as  many  special  names  as  there 
were  designs.  We  wonder  how  many  have  been 
added  since  we  were  there ! 

[202] 


CHAPTER  XI 

IN  MASSACHUSETTS  AND  CONNECTICUT 

WE  know  of  a  dear  old  gentleman,  the  rec- 
tor of  a  church  in  a  neighborhood  where 
a  thinnish  stream  of  association  has  en- 
riched the  soil  with  a  mild  growth  of  historical  in- 
terest, who  possesses  a  hand-saw  and  a  love  for  the 
old.  With  this  love  for  the  old  goes  a  generosity, 
whimsical  as  it  is  broad,  which  leads  him  to  wish  to 
share  his  treasures  with  all  the  world.  And  therein 
lies  the  utility  of  the  saw ! 

Let  there  but  be  the  felling  of  a  tree  under  which 
some  notability  once  passed  or  rested,  and  he  will 
saw  off  graceful  sections  of  the  wood  and  mail  them, 
each  one  carefully  labeled,  to  a  myriad  of  his  friends 
(and  every  one  who  knows  him  is  his  friend),  so  that 
they  may  share  with  him  in  the  possession  of  such  a 
memento. 

Let  there  be  the  tearing  down  of  a  building  in 

[203] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

which  some  man  of  note  lived  or  made  a  speech  or 
was  married  or  did  some  other  of  the  many  things  by 
which  men  of  note  render  buildings  of  interest,  and 
he  will  acquire  sundry  oaken  beams,  and  indefatiga- 
bly  use  his  hand-saw,  and  elaborately  label  and  mail, 
so  that,  again,  the  world  may  share  with  him  in  his 
treasure. 

Once,  so  great  were  his  enthusiasm  and  his  gener- 
osity, he  even  sawed  into  little  bits,  and  mailed,  an 
old  settle  upon  which  a  man  of  distinction  had  once 
sat!  It  was  badly  broken,  he  explained;  too  badly 
ever  to  be  of  use ;  and  from  his  description  it  seems  to 
have  been  one  of  those  settles,  with  long,  high, 
solid  backs  and  fine  carving,  which,  because  of  their 
protection  against  draughts,  were  long  in  common 
use  in  front  of  fireplaces,  but  were  practically  dis- 
placed, a  little  more  than  a  century  ago,  by  double- 
chairs  and  settees. 

Some  one  may  have  represented  to  the  kindly  rec- 
tor the  iconoclastic  sin  of  destroying  old  furniture 
even  by  a  parson's  saw,  or  he  may  never  have  found 
another  piece  which  in  his  opinion  defied  repair;  at 
any  rate,  that  was  the  one  time  we  have  heard  of  in 
which  his  saw  and  his  generosity  were  busy  with 
more  than  beams  and  trees. 

Necessarily,  there  is  diversity  as  to  what  consti- 
[204] 


Walnut  double-chair ;  in  Massachusetts 


Settee ;  with  shell  carving  on  the  cabriole  legs 

Two  Fine  Chippendale  Designs 


MASSACHUSETTS  AND  CONNECTICUT 

tutes  a  valuable  relic  of  the  past,  and  how  that  relic 
should  be  treated.  In  a  Connecticut  town,  one  of 
the  old  residents  proudly  preserves  and  displays  a 
pair  of  buckskin  breeches  worn  by  one  of  his  for- 
bears in  a  Revolutionary  skirmish  within  the  borders 
of  the  State.  The  relic  is  not  quite  intact,  the  pres- 
ent possessor  explaining  that  the  circular  hole  was 
cut  by  himself,  when  a  lad,  to  furnish  forth  a  needful 
cover  for  his  baseball — that  is,  what  we  should  now 
call  a  baseball,  although  when  he  was  a  boy  it  was 
the  ball  used  in  one-old-cat  or  long-ball,  or  perhaps 
rounders. 

Connecticut,  at  the  present  time,  is  one  of  the  very 
best  States  for  the  satisfactory  search  for  old  furni- 
ture. It  does  not  have  so  much  as  Pennsylvania; 
but  among  the  smaller  States  it  has  probably  the 
most.  In  early  days,  Massachusetts  had  more  than 
any  other  State;  but  in  Massachusetts  the  museums 
and  the  collectors  have  been  more  active  than  any- 
where else,  and  there  has  been  a  consequent  deple- 
tion of  the  total  of  possible  acquisitions. 

There  are  a  great  number  of  Colonial  dwellings 
in  existence  in  Connecticut.  There  are  a  host  of 
houses,  old  and  new,  where  Colonial  articles  are  still 
to  be  found.  And  the  frequency  of  intermarriage, 
in  a  considerable  portion  of  the  State,  and  the  f  ree- 

[207] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

dom  of  the  descendants  of  the  original  population 
from  outside  influences,  have  served  to  strengthen 
the  conservative  spirit;  and,  a  conservative  spirit  al- 
ways tending  toward  preservation,  alike  of  things 
material  and  tangible  as  of  principles  and  ideas,  it 
is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  many  homes  and  much 
furniture  have  been  saved. 

The  first  President,  within  a  few  months  after  his 
inauguration,  took  a  trip  through  a  considerable  part 
of  New  England,  driving  with  his  carriage  and  four 
horses ;  and  of  Connecticut  he  wrote  with  curious  de- 
tail, observing  the  absence  of  the  very  rich  and  the 
very  poor,  and  noting  that  the  general  type  of  Con- 
necticut house  had  a  door  in  the  middle  and  a  stair- 
case facing  the  door,  each  house  being  from  twenty 
to  thirty  feet  in  width  and  from  thirty  to  fifty  in 
length,  exclusive,  as  he  whimsically  wrote,  of  "a 
back  shed,  which  seems  to  be  added  as  the  family  in- 
creases." 

The  State  still  possesses  in  a  general  way  that  an- 
cient desideratum  of  neither  poverty  nor  riches,  al- 
though some  of  the  wealth  of  New  York  has  flowed 
over  its  borders  and  the  advance  of  civilization  has 
brought  its  inevitable  accompaniment  of  poverty; 
but  from  Washington's  rather  dry  description  of  the 
Connecticut  houses  their  charm  and  proportions 

[208] 


MASSACHUSETTS  AND  CONNECTICUT 

would  scarcely  be  understood.  Washington  was 
raised  amid  the  traditions  of  the  finest  Southern 
homes,  vastly  improved  in  appearance  as  they  were 
by  their  setting  in  the  midst  of  luxuriant  estates  and 
rich  plantations,  and  the  stony  fields  of  Connecticut 
were  bleak  to  his  eyes  and  insensibly  detracted  from 
the  aspect  of  the  houses  as  well.  And,  too,  he  was 
in  the  humor,  on  that  driving  trip,  to  see  things  in 
dry  and  dubious  light,  for  New  England  as  a  whole 
had  not  welcomed  the  new  Constitution  and  Govern- 
ment— Governor  Hancock  of  Massachusetts  tried  to 
snub  him  and  Rhode  Island  had  so  acted  that  he  re- 
fused to  enter  its  borders — and  his  trip  was  itself  but 
a  politic  effort,  hesitatingly  made,  to  secure  harmony 
among  the  Thirteen.  Had  he  seen  and  written  of 
Connecticut  at  a  happier  time  he  would  have  been 
impressed  by  the  alluring  roads,  the  low-rounding 
hills,  the  loosely-piled  stone  walls  separating  field 
from  field,  and  the  white  houses,  charmingly  built, 
gambrel  roofed,  primly  porticoed,  shaded  by  mighty 
trees. 

And  in  loitering  over  these  fascinating  roads  one 
comes  to  learn  that  there  is  not  only  much  of  the  ma- 
terial, the  actual,  that  has  been  preserved,  but  that 
there  are  also  interesting  survivals  of  the  ways  and 
the  customs  of  the  past. 

[209] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

For  in  many  a  town  and  hamlet  the  old  cottage  in- 
dustries are  carried  on.  And  to  find  them  is  like 
finding,  in  English  Westmoreland,  women  weaving 
linen  as  it  was  woven  there  by  women  of  centuries 
ago. 

In  many  a  Connecticut  cottage  baskets  are  made, 
of  splints,  of  ancient  manner  of  manufacture  and  of 
ancient  shape ;  so  strong,  these  baskets,  that  the  han- 
dles defy  the  hardest  pulling.  And  we  bought,  one 
day,  a  quaint  basket,  of  old-fashioned  design,  which 
the  sweet-faced  ancient  woman  who  sold  it  said  had 
been  made  "for  carrying  cakes  to  church  socials." 
What  a  sermon  lies  in  that  text !  The  simplicity  of 
it  all,  the  primitiveness,  the  nonrealization  of  any- 
thing out  of  the  way  or  uncommon!  Baskets  of 
that  shape  had  been  so  long  made  for  the  carrying  of 
cakes  to  the  social  gatherings  of  the  church  that  they 
were  merely  a  matter  of  course,  as  from  time  im- 
memorial. 

We  said,  an  "ancient"  woman.  And  indeed  that 
was  what  she  was.  Through  the  operation  of  some 
inscrutable  law,  one  never  finds  young  folk  engaged 
in  these  old-fashioned  occupations.  And  the  aged 
have  the  aspect,  the  manner,  the  skill,  of  such  as 
have  been  thus  engaged  for  all  their  lives.  Where 
did  they  hide,  one  wonders,  when  they  were  young? 
[210] 


MASSACHUSETTS  AND  CONNECTICUT 

What  was  it  that  turned  their  thoughts  to  the  follow- 
ing of  these  ancient  handicrafts,  assuming  the  man- 
tle as  it  dropped  from  those  who  were  passing  away? 
Whatever  the  explanation,  the  fact  is  always  the 
same. 

Wagon-loads  of  baskets  leave  the  little  villages 
and  are  peddled  through  the  countryside  for  miles. 
Many  an  aged  village  worker  makes  ladders  of  wear- 
defying  strength.  Many  an  aged  woman  makes  for 
sale  the  braided  rug  and  the  rug  that  is  hooked — the 
essential  feature  of  the  latter  art  being  the  hooking 
of  brightly  colored  rags  through  bagging. 

Wonderful  old  counterpanes  are  made,  of  pre- 
cisely the  kind  that  were  made  in  the  first  century  of 
Connecticut  history.  By  fine  needlework,  and  a  be- 
wilderingly  unlimited  number  of  stitches,  muslin  is 
puffed  over  soft  cotton  into  a  white  area  of  exquisite 
design.  The  women  sit  forever  over  the  frames  on 
which  the  counterpanes  are  spread.  Watching  a 
Connecticut  housewife  at  work  on  such  a  piece,  the 
thought  irresistibly  comes  that,  had  Penelope  hap- 
pily had  such  a  task  during  the  journeyings  of  Ulys- 
ses, it  would  have  kept  her  sufficiently  engaged  dur- 
ing even  so  lengthy  an  absence  as  his  without  having 
to  undo  any  of  the  work  at  night.  It  is  considered 
exceedingly  modest,  even  in  a  region  of  modest 

[21]-] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

prices,  to  charge  four  dollars  for  merely  marking  out, 
on  the  cotton,  the  pattern  of  a  good  counterpane. 

Many  an  old  man  puts  rush  or  splint  seats  in 
chairs;  and  a  very  pretty  art  it  is,  with  much  of  cu- 
rious skill  and  lore.  Rushes,  the  old  men  will  tell 
you,  must  be  gathered  only  in  June.  And  the  dif- 
ference between  a  bottom  of  rush  and  a  bottom  of 
flag,  or  cat-tail,  is  not  always  apparent  from  the 
upper  surface,  but,  turning  the  chair  upside  down,  is 
at  once  to  be  seen,  the  distinction  lying  in  the  matter 
of  the  strips  being  round  or  flat. 

Connecticut  is  the  home  of  the  old  "banjo"  clock, 
as  well  as  of  the  tall  clock  with  wooden  works,  but 
these  two  industries  have  vanished  with  that  of  the 
wooden  nutmeg. 

It  is  in  Connecticut  that  the  weaving  of  rag  car- 
pets continues  to  be  an  art.  And  in  one  little  cot- 
tage, far  from  a  railroad,  where  the  rags  must  be  sent 
by  stage,  if  sent  by  any  but  the  people  round  about, 
we  discovered  a  weaver  who  will  weave  (and  did 
weave  for  us)  a  pair  of  really  beautiful  silk  rugs, 
two  and  a  half  yards  in  length,  for  three  dollars!  — 
the  rags  being  supplied  to  him  but  he  furnishing  the 
warp  and  cutting  and  sewing  the  rags  and  hemming 
the  ends. 

In  a  State  where  so  much  of  the  old-time  handi- 

[212] 


MASSACHUSETTS  AND  CONNECTICUT 

craft  work  is  continued  as  a  business,  it  is  natural 
that  there  should  be  considerable  continuance  of  the 
old-fashioned  as  ordinary  household  occupations. 
Old  women  may  be  seen,  working  out  of  doors,  be- 
side great  kettles  of  brass  or  of  iron  which  are  sus- 
pended between  forked  sticks  over  blazing  fires,  and 
busy  with  the  mysteries  of  various  dyes  for  carpet- 
ing or  clothes ;  with  logwood  or  butternut  or  indigo. 
Many  a  household  makes  its  own  soap ;  an  admirable 
hard,  dry  product,  compounded  of  fat  and  potash. 
Here  and  there  is  a  household  that  still  molds  its 
own  candles;  and  we  learned  of  a  woman,  old  and 
indigent,  who  still  makes  the  primitive  dip!  The 
ancient  method  of  scouring  pots  and  pans  with  equi- 
setum,  the  horse-tail,  otherwise  known  as  "Dutch 
rush"  or  "scouring  rush,"  valuable  from  its  granules 
of  silica,  has  not  been  forgotten.  And  there  are  still 
Connecticut  housewives  who  know  how  to  bleach 
beeswax  in  the  traditional  way. 

It  is  a  pretty  thing  to  see  this.  A  kettle  of  yel- 
low beeswax  is  warmed  into  fluidity  and  set  upon  a 
table.  Beside  it  stands  a  bucket  of  cold  spring  wa- 
ter. The  woman  dips  her  hand  in  the  water;  then 
plunges  the  hand  into  the  beeswax;  withdrawing  it 
quickly,  it  is  covered  with  wax  which,  owing  to  the 
water,  slips  off  like  a  glove.  She  hangs  this  glove 

[213] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

of  yellow  wax  on  a  line  in  the  sunshine;  she  hangs 
another  and  another;  the  bright  sun  bleaches  them 
gradually  to  a  pure  white;  and  then  all  are  thrown 
into  the  kettle  again,  and  melted  down,  and  the 
product  is  white  beeswax. 

And,  added  to  all  these  things,  Connecticut  is  the 
home  of  the  old-time  County  Fair.  Here  it  is  in  its 
glory,  in  variety  of  little  and  big,  from  the  great  fair 
whose  week  shows  an  attendance  of  tens  of  thous- 
ands to  the  little  and  oftentimes  more  interesting 
ones  where  the  exhibits  are  simple  and  the  attend- 
ance can  be  estimated  by  hundreds. 

There  are  fine  old  towns  along  the  Sound,  and 
toward  Rhode  Island,  that  hold  much  treasure  of  old 
furniture.  New  Haven  is  particularly  rich  in  such 
possessions.  And  there  are  inland  sections,  and 
some  in  the  direction  of  the  New  York  line,  away 
from  the  railroads,  that  go  sleepily  on  as  if  not 
knowing  that  the  twentieth  century  has  come  knock- 
ing at  their  doors.  Here  and  there  in  the  un- 
touched portions  of  the  State  are  villages  which  look 
precisely  as  they  must  have  looked  before  the  Revo- 
lution; and  in  such  places  the  furniture  seeker  is  op- 
timistically cheerful  whenever  a  fan-light  swims  into 
his  ken. 

The    finding   of   old-fashioned    things   possesses 

[214] 


MASSACHUSETTS  AND  CONNECTICUT 

somewhat  of  the  erraticalness  of  wireless  telegraphy. 
A  piece  of  old  furniture  may  be  discovered  in  the 
locality  where  one  would  most  naturally  look  for  it, 
or,  like  a  wireless  message,  it  may  be  picked  up  quite 
unexpectedly,  at  a  distance  from  any  point  where  it 
logically  belongs. 

But  in  spite  of  delightfully  erratic  chances  which 
so  often  put  things  in  the  path  of  the  collector  in  un- 
anticipated places,  the  most  natural  neighborhoods 
for  finding  ancient  treasures  are  those  where  the 
things  were  commonly  made  and  used  by  everyone; 
and  it  is  for  this  reason  that  Connecticut  and  Massa- 
chusetts are  so  well  worthy  of  close  scrutiny. 

In  an  old  Massachusetts  house  there  was  recently 
a  quantity  of  old  furniture,  and  an  acquaintance  of 
ours  determined  to  acquire  it. 

"But  the  owner  is  worth  half  a  million  dollars!" 
came  a  neighbor's  alarmed  warning. 

"That  so*?  But  I  don't  want  his  money — I  just 
want  his  furniture !"  And  he  got  what  he  wanted. 

There  is  unbounded  wealth  of  old  furniture  in 
Massachusetts.  As  a  Colony,  and  as  a  State  in  the 
early  days  of  the  Republic,  it  contained  more  pieces, 
in  quantity,  than  any  other.  But  the  field  has  been 
worked  with  a  zeal  commensurate  with  the  value 
and  with  the  vast  number  of  potential  prizes, 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

and  the  summer  colonists  have  vied  with  collectors 
in  carrying  the  quest  into  almost  every  corner.  And 
yet,  so  much  existed  here  that  it  has  been  impossible 
for  collectors,  museums  and  summer  colonists,  inde- 
fatigable though  they  have  been,  to  find  and  appro- 
priate all  that  is  capable  of  being  acquired.  It  is 
still  an  admirable  field. 

Some  years  ago,  in  the  ancient  town  which  is  of 
greater  historical  interest  than  any  other  in  the  State 
except  Boston,  we  met  an  aged  man  who  was  custo- 
dian, in  his  own  house,  of  the  local  museum.  Most 
of  the  pieces  belonged  to  him  personally  and  numer- 
ous others  had  been  loaned  to  him,  for  at  his  death 
the  town  was  to  become  the  owner  and  custodian. 
His  mind  had  begun  to  grow  a  little  dim,  but  the 
passion  for  collecting,  that  had  been  his  one  passion 
since  his  youth,  was  still  as  strong  as  ever.  Moving 
gently  toward  the  close  of  a  long  life,  his  fading  eyes 
looked  lovingly  over  the  treasures  he  had  amassed. 
No  miser  ever  felt  keener  delight  in  counting  gold. 
And  yet,  he  was  no  miser.  Under  no  consideration 
would  he  sell  to  anyone;  but  it  was  from  him  that 
there  came  to  us  as  a  gift,  the  cup  of  Major  Buttrick. 

In  every  part  of  his  large  house  there  was  a  mass- 
ing of  all  varieties  of  household  belongings.  There 
were  corner-cupboards,  some  made  to  stand  detached, 

[216] 


£"  5" 


MASSACHUSETTS  AND  CONNECTICUT 

others  which  had  been  built  into  the  walls  of  old 
houses.  China  filled  the  cupboards,  and  in  one  was 
what  many  consider  the  finest  lot  of  Lowestoft  in 
the  United  States. 

He  did  not,  indeed,  realize  the  full  value  of  every- 
thing. It  was  enough  for  him  to  collect  the  old;  it 
was  for  others  to  divide  and  sub-divide  into  grades 
of  interest.  It  was  a  town  legend  that,  regarding 
this  very  Lowestoft,  some  one  commented  with  a  cry 
of  surprise  upon  what  it  was. .  "What  a  lot  of 
Lowestoft !" 

Whereupon  he  responded,  with  a  look  of  high  dis- 
pleasure, that  it  was  not  "low  stuff";  it  had  been 
Mrs.  So-and-so's  "very  best  china"  ! 

Beginning  to  collect,  in  an  old  neighborhood,  long 
before  the  general  era  of  furniture  collecting,  he  was 
able  to  gather  numerous  specimens  of  the  earliest 
forms.  For  example,  he  had  some  of  the  earliest 
bureaus,  or  low  chests  of  drawers,  of  which  scarcely 
any  are  known  of  as  existing  previous  to  1750,  as  be- 
fore that  time  armoires  and  chests  and  tall  cupboards 
were  used.  The  bureaus  became  so  rapidly  popular 
that  many  were  in  service  by  the  time  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, and  a  vast  number  by  1800,  many  having  claw- 
and-ball  feet,  and  fluted  columns  at  the  sides,  and 
charming  serpentine  fronts,  and  perhaps  even  panels 

[219] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

of  satin-wood  set  in  the  midst  of  the  mahogany. 
This  style  of  furniture,  as  well  as  others,  could  be 
studied  in  his  collection,  and  he  loved  to  speak  of 
points  which  to  him  seemed  important.  One  might 
smile  at  some  of  his  classifications,  but  no  one  could 
smile  at  his  ability  to  find  and  secure  precious  things. 

That  he  freely  offered  us  the  privilege  of  sleeping 
in  a  room  that  was  so  crowded  with  antiques  that 
there  was  scarcely  space  to  move,  and  of  sleep- 
ing there  in  a  Jacobean  four-poster  which  he  be- 
lieved had  come  over  in  one  of  the  trips  of  the  May- 
flower, was  the  crowning  proof  of  his  love  for  fellow 
collectors — but  the  room  and  the  bed  were  of  so  ex- 
traordinary a  mustiness  that  we  declined  the  privilege. 

Another  Massachusetts  town,  Salem,  is  dear  to 
memory,  not  only  from  its  treasures  of  the  past  but 
from  being  the  place  where,  Westerners  that  we  at 
that  time  were,  we  first  saw  a  grandfather's  clock 
ticking  away,  in  a  private  house,  in  the  very  corner 
in  which  it  had  ticked  through  the  Revolution. 

In  another  old  house,  locally  known  as  that  of 
Roger  Williams,  were  some  Windsor  chairs  of  par- 
ticularly fine  proportions,  weather-beaten  out  of 
all  color  and  so  worn  on  their  "saddle-seats"  that  the 
tops  of  the  front  legs  were  in  sight ;  and  these  chairs 
remain  with  the  clock,  in  our  memory,  because  of 

[220] 


MASSACHUSETTS  AND  CONNECTICUT 

their  having  been  the  first  of  that  design  which  we 
actually  handled. 

In  a  corner  of  this  old  town,  we  secured  two  very 
fine  old  sugar  bowls  for  the  sum  of  twenty-five  cents 
apiece;  and  these  two  bowls  are  among  the  prized 
smaller  pieces  of  our  belongings. 

Among  the  beautiful  Berkshire  Hills  one's  first 
feeling  is  that  there  can  be  nothing  left  to  find  in  a 
region  so  dotted  with  summer  homes.  One  is  temp- 
ted to  give  over,  for  once,  all  thought  of  acquiring 
ancient  things,  and  to  resign  oneself  to  the  fascina- 
tion of  a  peculiarly  charming  hill  country. 

And  yet  it  was  in  the  very  heart  of  the  Berkshires 
that  we  discovered  the  old  mirror  as  the  cupboard 
door  of  the  tool  shed ! 

We  stayed  for  some  time  in  one  of  the  many  old 
houses,  which,  in  New  Jersey,  are  invariably  termed 
"Washington's  Headquarters,"  but  which  in  all  the 
other  Twelve,  including  Massachusetts,  are  usually 
and  modestly  set  down  as  "houses  where  Washing- 
ton slept."  A  comfortable,  gable-roofed  house,  this, 
now  used  as  an  inn,  with  a  monster  chimney  in  the 
very  heart  of  it,  opening  with  hospitable  fireplaces 
into  various  rooms ;  and,  even  if  it  may  not  have  been 
drowsed  into  fame  by  our  first  President  (and,  after 
all  allowances  for  the  necessity  of  his  having  to  sleep 

[221] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

somewhere  for  the  many  nights  of  his  lifetime,  a  too 
ready  credulity  of  sleeping  tales  would  make  him 
out  as  a  descendant  of  all  Seven  of  the  Sleepers),  it 
has  at  least  been  slept  in  by  a  more  recent  President, 
and  from  its  felicitous  location  upon  a  hillside  it 
looks  out  upon  a  winding  road,  a  delightful  little 
stream,  and  a  scene  of  radiant  charm.  And  in  this 
old  house,  among  other  reminders  of  the  past,  were  a 
four-poster,  two  sets  of  andirons,  three  fine  mirrors, 
one  Empire  and  two  of  them  Constitution,  and 
wealth  of  blue  dishes ! 

Again  showing,  all  this,  that  everywhere,  even  in 
those  regions  where  one  would  least  expect  antiqui- 
ties to  remain,  they  are  still  to  be  found.  And,  as 
always,  where  they  are  to  be  found,  there  are  con- 
stantly recurrent  chances  to  obtain  them. 

But  at  least  in  Boston,  one  is  liable  faintheartedly 
to  think,  there  can  be  nothing  obtainable.  There 
are,  however,  antique  shops  in  Boston,  with  good 
and  bad,  genuine  and  imitation.  And  there  are 
many  private  houses  in  which  are  great  numbers  of 
desirable  articles;  and  always,  from  time  to  time, 
there  are  such  changes  of  ownership,  such  dying  out 
of  families,  such  dispersion  of  goods  from  one  rea- 
son or  another,  as  to  give  the  watchful  collector  op- 
portunities. 

[  222  ] 


MASSACHUSETTS  AND  CONNECTICUT 

And  there  is  still  a  distinctly  ancient  quarter  of 
Boston;  a  neighborhood  where  old  houses  nod 
sleepily  toward  one  another  across  narrow  ways, 
where  many  a  "bull's  eye"  of  the  primitive  glass- 
makers  is  to  be  seen,  and  where,  although  most  of  the 
old-time  furniture  and  fittings  have  been  removed, 
leaving  the  habitations  to  the  occupancy  of  folk  who 
are  not  precisely  to  be  deemed  descendants  of  Alden 
and  Priscilla,  there  are  still  some  things  to  be  found. 

In  one  of  the  oldest  houses,  now  occupied  by  Rus- 
sian Jews,  we  came  upon  a  superbly  beautiful  shell- 
top  corner-cupboard,  but  so  built  into  the  wall  as  to 
involve  very  considerable  expense  in  removal,  even 
were  permission  to  be  gained  and  the  piece  pur- 
chased. We  found  the  room  used  as  a  kitchen  by 
the  thronging  inhabitants  of  the  building,  and  the 
cupboard  was  a  sad  and  unclean  wreck;  yet  it 
showed,  again,  that  hope  should  spring  eternal  in  the 
collector's  breast. 

Of  all  the  States,  Massachusetts  is  the  one  in 
which  the  study  of  old  furniture  from  examples  can 
most  satisfactorily  be  pursued. 

Not  only  in  Boston  are  there  fine  collections  to  be 
seen;  furniture  in  museums  and  in  place  in  histori- 
cal buildings ;  but  other  towns  also  have  splendid  ac- 
cumulations. There  is  the  fascinating  display  of 

[223] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

the  Essex  Institute,  at  Salem;  there  is  the  old  furni- 
ture gathered  at  Concord;  there  is  the  collection  at 
ancient  Plymouth,  where,  in  spite  of  poetical  decla- 
mation, the  breaking  waves  did  not  dash  high  nor  is 
the  coast  rock-bound ;  and  there  are  the  valuable  col- 
lections of  Worcester,  Deerfield,  and  other  places. 

One  may  study  the  cabriole  legs  and  shell  orna- 
mentation that  were  new  and  fashionable  in  the  time 
of  Queen  Anne — new,  in  a  sense  only,  for  the  bandy- 
leg  first  came  from  China,  in  the  ships  of  Dutch 
traders.  One  may  study  old  chairs,  and  begin  to 
realize  the  general  truth  of  the  saying  that  the  heav- 
ier the  underbracing  the  greater  the  age !  One  may 

see,  too,  that  chairs  were  not  at  all  common  until  the 

/ 

Cromwellian  era  and  the  feeling  of  equality  that 
came  in  with  his  Commonwealth;  for,  before  that, 
stools  and  forms  were  usual  for  all  except  the  head 
of  the  house.  One  may  find  original  old  chairs  in 
Spanish  leather — a  type  frequently  counterfeited 
nowadays,  with  convincing  display  of  disrepair  and 
raggedness.  And  in  collections  such  as  these  may  be 
seen  early  upholstered  chairs — upholstery  having 
come  originally  from  Venice,  the  city  of  wealth  and 
luxury — and,  by  contrast,  early  English  and  Ameri- 
can chairs  with  solid  splats,  and  then  the  earlier  sim- 
ple splats preceding  the  beautiful  ones  of  Chippendale. 

[224] 


MASSACHUSETTS  AND  CONNECTICUT 

Brass  handles,  too,  may  profitably  be  studied  in 
these  collections,  if  the  collector  has  passed  the  first 
stages  of  what  has  to  be  learned;  but,  interesting 
though  this  branch  is,  and  often  valuable  in  fixing 
an  otherwise  doubtful  date,  it  is  so  involved  by  the 
frequent  use  of  old  handles  on  new  pieces  and  new 
handles  upon  old  pieces  that  deductions  are  liable  to 
confuse  rather  than  enlighten. 

So  much,  in  collections  like  those  of  Massachu- 
setts, tells  of  history  as  well  as  age;  so  much  is 
connected  with  people  whose  names  are  household 
words;  that  the  pleasure  of  examination  and  study 
is  greatly  enhanced. 

The  collector  will  not  find  things  labelled  Jaco- 
bean or  Elizabethan,  Adam  or  Heppelwhite,  Chip- 
pendale or  Sheraton.  Such  distinctions  he  must 
learn  elsewhere.  But  he  will  learn  the  most  valua- 
ble secrets  of  all;  he  will  learn,  by  comparison 
of  dates,  what  shapes  go  with  certain  periods,  and 
what  shapes  lap  over  from  one  period  to  another; 
and  he  will  train  his  eye. 

And,  supplementary  to  what  may  be  learned  in 
important  collections,  there  are  books,  like  the  edi- 
tion of  "Cranford"  which  is  illustrated  by  Hugh 
Thomson  and  the  edition  of  "Elia"  illustrated  by 
Charles  E.  Brock,  which  set  one  back  into  the  very 

[22*] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

atmosphere  of  the  past,  for  the  pictures  are  made 
from  sympathy  and  full  knowledge,  and  show  old- 
fashioned  rooms  just  as  they  were  really  furnished 
and  lived  in,  and  the  characters  costumed  in  the  old- 
time  way. 


I  225] 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE   EASTERN    SHORE 

THE  Eastern  Shore !  What  suggestive  power 
these  words  have!  What  visions  of  hos- 
pitable living  they  conjure  up! 

And  there  is  such  delightful  arrogance  in  the 
name.  It  is  as  if  all  the  other  eastern  shores  are  of 
no  account ;  as  if,  literally,  they  do  not  exist,  and  as 
if  everyone  must  instantly  comprehend  that,  when 
the  Eastern  Shore  is  mentioned,  there  is  no  possibil- 
ity that  anything  but  that  part  of  Maryland  which 
lies  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  Chesapeake  can  be 
meant. 

A  journey  thither  is  but  the  matter  of  a  few  hours 
from  Philadelphia,  down  through  the  peach  orchards 
of  Delaware  and  into  the  land  of  charm,  where  there 
are  romantic  houses,  and  far-inreaching  inlets,  and 
huge  oaks,  and  brilliant  holly  bushes,  and  honey- 

[22?] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

suckle,  and  where,  with  unexpected  appreciation  of 
the  highest  demands  of  "local  color,"  scarlet  tana- 
gers  now  and  then  flit  across  the  white  shell  roads. 

We  chose  at  random  for  our  stopping  place,  a 
town,  a  county  seat,  whose  name  had  a  pleasing 
sound.  It  proved  to  be  a  quaint  old  place,  with 
houses  whose  dormer  windows  suggested  attic  trea- 
sure and  whose  roofs  of  shingle  were  green  with 
heavy  moss. 

Yet  there  were  not  many  houses  of  real  distinc- 
tion within  the  town  itself  for  it  had  been  the  cus- 
tom, with  most  of  the  families  of  prominence,  to  live 
away  from  the  towns  in  houses  facing  tidewater  and 
surrounded  by  broad  acres. 

Buzzards  were  much  in  evidence  too;  an  affable, 
amicable,  neighborly  breed,  who  loiteringly  fly  over 
the  fields  or  perch  in  unostentatious  lines  upon  back 
fences.  Colored  folk  give  the  impression  of  being 
all-pervasive;  and,  as  in  other  parts  of  the  South, 
there  is  considerable  old  furniture  in  their  posses- 
sion, although  perhaps  so  dilapidated  as  to  be  be- 
yond repair. 

A  Heppelwhite  sideboard,  with  two  legs  missing, 
was  propped  up  in  the  shed  of  a  negro  family,  in  the 
outskirts  of  the  town.  The  brass  handles  had  dis- 
appeared, but  a  nail  projected  from  each  drawer  in 

[228] 


THE  EASTERN  SHORE 

equivalence.  Seed-corn,  and  mule  medicine,  and 
bits  of  old  iron,  were  in  the  drawers.  But  we  did 
not  seriously  consider  its  rejuvenation,  as  at  that 
time  we  were  anticipating  the  possession  of  a  side- 
board from  another  part  of  the  country. 

At  the  edge  of  the  shaded  green  beside  the  court- 
house, black  men  and  women  were  seated  in  rows, 
selling  their  wares  in  public  market.  Such  shad  there 
was,  and  such  oysters !  A  basket  was  all  that  each 
one  had  and  the  emptying  of  that  meant  a  prosperous 
day's  work.  The  residents  were  out  getting  sup- 
plies. Men  who  gave  critical  attention  to  the  choice 
of  shad,  and  who  were  followed  each  by  his  old 
dusky  servant  with  a  lidded  basket,  were  a  common 
sight.  A  reputation  for  hospitality  and  good 
living  is  not  founded  on  telephone  orders  to  the 
butcher. 

The  warm  spring  air,  the  line  of  horses  at  the 
hitching  bar,  the  general  aspect  of  plenty  of  time,  the 
homely  character  of  the  simple  market  by  the  road- 
side, carried  one  back  many  years  from  the  life  of  to- 
day. This  is  a  sort  of  living  which  was  typical  of 
much  of  the  South  before  the  Revolutionary  War, 
and  one  can  understand  the  story  of  the  colored  ste- 
ward who,  for  a  dinner  at  the  executive  mansion  on 
Cherry  Hill,  in  New  York,  bought,  to  please  Presi- 

[229] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

dent  Washington,  an  early  shad,  for  two  dollars — 
but  only  to  have  it  coldly  ordered  away  as  a  rebuke 
for  such  extravagance. 

But,  fascinating  as  were  the  roads  and  the  trees 
and  the  water,  the  shad  and  the  oysters,  the  poke- 
weed  shoots  and  the  baskets  of  beaten  biscuits,  we 
had  not  gone  to  the  Eastern  Shore  altogether  for  per- 
ishable delights  or  for  scenery. 

After  a  general  look  about  the  town  we  came  again 
to  the  business  street.  The  shops  were  close  to- 
gether, and  there  were  stationers  and  booksellers,  and 
vendors  of  needles  and  pins,  the  modern  idea  of  con- 
solidation not  having  penetrated  here. 

Along  the  thin  brick  pavement,  under  the  wooden 
awnings  which  extended  over  the  sidewalk  and  rested 
upon  curbstone  rods,  we  walked  slowly  on,  until,  just 
beyond  the  onions  and  radishes  of  a  green-grocer,  we 
caught  sight  of  an  Empire  sideboard,  upon  whose 
front  and  ends  and  top  the  polish  had  whitened  un- 
der the  influence  of  drip  from  the  awning. 

It  came  to  us  that  this  must  be  the  sideboard  of 
which  our  innkeeper,  garrulously  discoursing  of  old 
furniture  for  our  behoof,  had  told.  "He  bought  my 
grandfather's  sideboard  at  a  sale,  suh,  and  wanted 
to  sell  it  to  me  for  four  dollars!  And  I  told  him  I 
would  give  him  three  dollars  for  it,  suh,  and  then  I 

[230] 


Empire  design,  with  swell-front  cupboard 


From  Maryland ;  with  centre  tmusually  high  above  the  floor 

Empire  Sideboards,  with  Pillars  and  Claw  Feet 


THE  EASTERN  SHORE 

worked  up  to  three  fifty,  but  we  have  n't  come  to 
terms  yet,  suh." 

There  were  four  fine  columns  across  the  front. 
There  were  three  large  cupboard  doors.  There  was 
a  claw  foot  at  one  end  and  a  short  stub,  toe- 
less  and  shapeless,  at  the  other,  giving  it  a  cant 
forward  that  threw  its  bottle  drawers  open  with  a 
rakish  and  desperate  look.  At  each  end,  under  the 
board  of  the  top,  on  pulling  a  brass  knob,  there  ap- 
peared a  long  mahogany  slide,  thus  increasing  the  al- 
ready generous  length  very  considerably.  How 
many  glasses  and  bottles  and  custard  cups  had  been 
set  forth  on  those  slides !  And  what  a  clever  idea  it 
was,  and  one  so  very  easily  made  use  of. 

We  entered ;  and  found  that  we  were  in  the  under- 
taking shop  of  the  county.  An  old  man  greeted  us, 
and  told  us  he  was  tending  the  shop  for  his  son,  who 
was  out.  The  old  man  liked  to  talk,  and  he  told 
how  many  years  he  had  been  a  cabinet-maker  and 
how  many  great  men  of  the  Shore  he  had  measured. 

He  was  very  much  out  of  patience  with  the  fac- 
tory furniture  of  to-day,  and  with  the  heavy  varnish 
put  on  with  a  brush.  He  was  full  of  tales  of  old 
times  and  old  ways,  and  told  how  Admiral  B —  used 
to  have  his  mahogany  polished.  "No  shellac  in  that 
house!  No  French  polish  for  him!  No  stuff  of 

[237] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

that  kind!  Just  a  big  cork  and  a  darky  and  bees- 
wax! That  was  the  old  Admiral's  way  and  it 's  the 
way  of  the  whole  Eastern  Shore,  and  it  's  the  best 
way — only  you  can't  get  a  darky  nowadays  who  '11 
rub  all  day  on  the  top  of  a  dining  table." 

The  sideboard  at  the  front  was  spoken  of,  but  as  a 
piece  of  furniture  it  did  not  seem  to  please  the  old 
cabinet-maker  particularly  and  he  sniffed  out  that  his 
son  had  bought  it  and  wanted  to  sell  it.  "He  's  been 
offering  it  for  four  dollars  but  maybe  he  '11  take  less. 
There  's  a  better  one  out  in  the  barn,  for  four  dol- 
lars, straight." 

It  soon  appeared  that  the  old  man  had  a  positive 
dislike  for  veneer;  and  as  the  Empire  sideboard  was 
veneered  on  its  whole  face,  on  all  its  panels  and  on 
the  margins  of  doors  and  drawers,  the  reason  for  his 
dislike  of  the  piece  was  sufficiently  evident.  And 
for  our  part,  the  knowledge  that  the  innkeeper  was 
trying  to  get  it  because  of  its  having  belonged  to  his 
grandfather  was  alone  sufficient  to  restrain  us  from 
trying  to  make  an  acquisition. 

The  old  cabinet-maker  of  the  Eastern  Shore  dis- 
liked veneer  because  he  was  of  what  may  be  termed 
the  school  of  Chippendale,  who,  although  veneer 
was  in  use  long  before  his  time,  notably  by  Boulle, 
and  in  his  time,  by  Riesener,  stoutly  made  all  of 

[234] 


THE  EASTERN  SHORE 

his  effects  by  solid  wood  alone.  But  Sheraton  and 
Heppelwhite  used  veneer  with  admirable  effective- 
ness, and  the  Empire  workers  used  it  even  more  al- 
though oftentimes  to  less  good  purpose. 

There  is  a  widespread  prejudice  against  veneer, 
not  based  upon  full  knowledge,  like  that  of  the  old 
cabinet-maker,  but  owing  its  strength  to  the  figura- 
tive use  of  the  word  as  meaning  surface  gloss  or 
false  pretense. 

But  veneer  is  often  admirable,  and  whether  or  not 
it  is  so  depends  upon  the  motive  of  the  cabinet- 
maker as  well  as  his  skill.  If  used  as  a  makeshift  or 
mask  it  should  be  condemned  as  false. 

The  top  of  a  table  or  bureau  is  sometimes  veneered 
to  obtain  the  highly  desired  "quartered"  effect,  or 
"tree"  pattern  as  it  is  sometimes  called,  but  flat 
veneered  surfaces  are  much  more  easily  damaged 
than  are  solid  tops.  Water  or  oil  spilled  upon  veneer 
is  liable  to  raise  blisters,  which  are  serious  deface- 
ments, whereas  spill-marks  upon  solid  wood  are 
easily  effaced. 

But  there  are  some  curved  surfaces,  such  as  round 
pillars,  with  which  beautiful  effects  can  be  secured 
with  veneer,  through  the  natural  lines  of  the  grain 
of  the  wood,  where  effectiveness  would  largely  be 
lost  with  solid  wood  unless  it  were  carved.  Carving 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

was  used  by  some  old-time  makers  where  effects  in 
veneer  and  inlay  were  depended  upon  by  others. 

There  are  sometimes  edges  and  panels  effectively 
veneered,  and  admirably  so  where  the  edges  are  pro- 
tected by  the  surrounding  wood  from  damage. 
That  some  of  the  best  old  furniture  shows  mahogany 
veneer  upon  solid  mahogany,  well  illustrates  what  is 
meant  by  an  honest  and  admirable  use  of  veneer. 

Leaving  the  old  veneered  sideboard,  the  cabinet- 
maker adjusted  a  bell  so  that  it  would  ring  when  the 
door  opened  and  led  us  back  into  his  yard  and  barn. 

And  a  great  surprise  was  in  store  for  us.  For  in 
the  barn,  half-filled  as  it  was  with  hay  and  corn, 
stood  nine  pieces  of  exceptionally  fine  mahogany. 

Near  the  door  was  a  solid,  dark,  huge  corner-cup- 
board, with  bonnet-top;  or  "broken-arch"  top  as  it 
is  frequently  termed;  it  being  the  style,  introduced 
two  hundred  years  ago  into  furniture,  in  which 
the  pediment  is  broken  by  a  space  in  the  middle. 
The  cupboard  was  polished  by  the  cork  and  beeswax 
and  rubbing  of  many  years  and  gleamed  dully  amid 
the  litter  of  the  shabby  barn.  The  cupboard  doors 
were  solid  instead  of  one  being  of  glass,  and  this  was 
a  distinctly  unfavorable  point,  even  though  they  were 
of  good  wood  and  of  good  proportions.  On  opening 
the  doors,  it  was  seen  that  there  was  a  curious  blem- 

[236] 


THE  EASTERN  SHORE 

ish — though  a  tribute,  of  sorts,  to  the  good  cheer  that 
had  once  been  there — for  rats  had  gnawed  great 
holes  through  every  shelf. 

Balanced  with  its  legs  in  air  was  a  small  work- 
table  with  two  drawers  and  rope-carved  legs.  This 
table  had  a  slide  below  the  drawers  from  which  tat- 
ters of  green  silk  still  hung  where  the  silk  work-bag 
used  to  be,  as  seen  so  often  in  old-time  pictures.  The 
price  of  this  little  table  was  seven  dollars;  and  this 
seemed  curious,  for  it  was  not  of  so  fine  a  style  as 
the  great  corner-cupboard  or  as  other  pieces  there. 
But  the  explanation  was  simple.  It  was  small,  and 
would  for  that  reason  sell  more  readily,  for  the  ex- 
press charges  would  be  light.  And  it  was  ready  to 
use  except  for  a  new  silk  bag. 

Purchasers  dread  the  express  charges  on  heavy  old 
pieces ;  and  the  amateur  in  collecting  fears,  to  face  the 
world  with  a  sideboard  without  a  leg.  A  pillar 
gone,  or  an  urn  missing  from  a  mirror  top,  sends  the 
value  sharply  down  in  the  judgment  of  most  pur- 
chasers. A  small  chip  in  the  veneer  will  check  the 
otherwise  ardent  buyer  of  a  chest  of  drawers,  al- 
though it  could  be  mended  for  fifty  cents,  or  by 
twenty  minutes'  work  if  the  purchaser  would  do  it 
himself  at  his  home. 

In  that  shabby  building,  too,  there  was  a  tilting- 

[237] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

table  which  would  both  revolve  and  tip,  and  which, 
moreover,  had  a  raised  edge  to  prevent  cups  from 
slipping  off.  A  treasure,  that,  indeed !  To  be  sure, 
the  slender  graceful  snake  feet  had  been  painted  red 
and  the  top  had  been  roughly  used  for  holding  flower 
pots,  but  the  flame  of  the  wood  still  glowed,  and  the 
table  could  easily  be  restored  to  full  beauty. 

There  was,  too,  a  dining  table  of  heavy  fine  dark 
wood;  a  Pembroke  table — which  sounds  so  very 
much  better  than  merely  to  say  that  it  had  two  leaves 
which  hung  almost  to  the  floor.  This  is  the  sort  of 
table  that,  if  it  belonged  to  one's  grandfather,  one 
would  be  glad  to  place  in  the  middle  of  the  dining 
room,  but  which,  unless  it  have  some  such  personal 
association,  repels  by  its  long  and  dolorously  droop- 
ing leaves. 

Such  examples  of  what  may  be  found  by  a 
stranger  making  a  flying  visit,  at  random,  are  suffi- 
cient to  give  an  intimation  of  what  is  still  to  be  dis- 
covered along  the  Eastern  Shore. 

It  used  to  be  not  uncommon  for  some  of  the  big 
salesrooms  to  say  in  their  advertisements,  that  they 
were  going  to  dispose  at  auction  of  carloads  of  "old 
furniture  from  the  Eastern  Shore" ;  and  the  picture 
of  a  country  denuded  of  its  treasures  had  begun  to 
fix  itself  in  our  minds ;  and  had  we  not  known  some- 

[238] 


THE  EASTERN  SHORE 

thing  of  the  ways  of  advertisers  we  should  not  have 
had  the  courage  to  go  into  that  particular  field  in 
search  of  furniture.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  a  collec- 
tion of  furniture  offered  for  sale  as  being  from  a 
specified  locality,  is  likely  to  contain  not  only  pieces 
that  are  genuinely  from  that  locality,  but  pieces  from 
much  nearer  home  and  even  imitations  and  reproduc- 
tions. Many  a  lot  of  furniture  to  which  an  attrac- 
tive name,  such  as  the  Eastern  Shore,  or  Beaufort, 
is  attached,  consists  of  the  fraudulent  new  as  well  as 
the  genuine  old.  It  is  not  uncommon,  too,  in  dispos- 
ing of  the  belongings  of  some  well-known  collector, 
to  augment  the  total  with  other  articles,  good  or 
bad. 

But,  although  not  nearly  so  much  as  has  been 
claimed  has  been  taken  away  from  the  Eastern  Shore 
by  dealers,  great  quantities  have  been  taken,  and  we 
deemed  ourselves  fortunate  to  discover  nine  good  old 
pieces  in  one  old  barn. 

While  we  were  still  in  the  barn,  looking  over  the 
things  with  the  old  cabinet-maker,  the  bell  jangled 
and  we  heard  active  approaching  footsteps,  and  the 
son  appeared.  A  wiry  alert  sort  of  man  he  was,  and 
he  began  by  saying  that  there  was  little  profit  in  the 
sale  of  furniture  in  such  a  broken-down  condition. 

"What  I  mean  to  do  is  fix  it  up.     If  I  can  only 

[239] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

get  the  time  I  can  make  these  old  things  worth  while. 
I  was  up  in  Baltimore  last  winter  and  I  saw  tables 
that  were  tables!  Polished — well,  I  should  say 
they  were!  And  inlaid! — well,  all  along  the  edges 
there  were  lines,  and  down  the  legs  there  were  rows 
of  tapering  flowers!  I  found  where  I  could  buy 
such  things  for  inlay  work  and  I  bought  a  whole  out- 
fit. Just  as  soon  as  there  's  a  lull  in  our  undertaking 
business — we  've  been  pretty  busy,  you  know,"  he 
interpolated  brightly — "I  mean  to  get  these  old 
things  out  and  fix  them  up.  Father,  here,  could  do 
it  but  he  does  n't  feel  like  beginning  at  it,  and  any- 
way, we  've  both  been  too  busy." 

"How  much  do  you  want  for  the  tip-table?"  he 
was  asked. 

"You  can  have  that  for  three  dollars.  You  can 
scrape  that  paint  off  and  get  the  surface  off  the  top 
and  you  '11  have  a  fine  table  and  fine  wood.  Father 
taught  me  all  he  knows,  and  it  's  no  small  learning 
when  you  learn  cabinet-making  from  a  man  of  the 
old  school." 

The  young  man  turned  to  the  hay-mow  and 
dragged  down  by  one  leg  a  graceful  but  shattered 
bandy-leg  table.  It  was  of  the  Chippendale  period 
or  older.  It  had  graceful  curving  legs,  slim  above 
the  feet  and  ending  in  perfect  bird's  claws  clasping 
[240] 


"A  tilting- table  which  both  revolves 
and  tips  " 


Claw-and-ball  table  which  cost  one 
dollar 


I 


A  winged-claw  table ;  bought  for  one  dollar  Simple  work-table,  with  rosette  brasses 

Old  Mahogany  Tables 


THE  EASTERN  SHORE 

a  ball.  The  top  was  formed  of  what  had  been  the 
extension  leaves,  and  was  fastened  to  the  frame  by 
coarse  wooden  pins.  It  had  seen  service  as  a  drip- 
board  for  dishes  and  the  beautiful  hard  wood  had 
been  made  fairly  fuzzy  by  hot  water. 

The  top,  being  larger  than  it  ought  to  be,  had 
been  the  salvation  of  the  graceful  legs  and  of  the 
claw-and-ball  feet,  for,  projecting  so  far  as  it  did,  it 
had  protected  them  from  serious  mars. 

It  was  evident  that  the  top  was  large  enough  and 
to  spare  for  the  cutting  from  it  of  a  top  of  good  pro- 
portions, and  that  the  fuzzy  surface  could  be  planed 
away,  thus  getting  down  to  the  fine  dark  grain. 

The  young  man  went  to  his  workshop,  and  re- 
turned with  a  handful  of  the  inlays  that  he  had  told 
of  purchasing.  They  looked  as  if  they  were  made  of 
yellow  celluloid — or,  rather,  they  looked  like  dark 
macaroni  cut  into  inlay  designs.  There  were  drooping 
garlands  of  bellflower,  and  corner  designs,  and  little 
panels  for  drawers,  and  wooden  ovals  for  keyhole 
escutcheons.  Such  things  we  had  seen  many  times 
in  the  finished  products  in  the  fine  shops  where  An- 
tiquities with  a  big  A  are  sold,  but  we  had  not 
thought  to  handle  them,  loose,  in  an  old  barn  on  the 
Eastern  Shore. 

He  laid  some  on  the  bandy-leg  table.     Inlays 

[243] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

were  pushed  along  the  fuzzy,  water-ruined  top,  with 
a  suggestive  hand.  Memories  of  that  Baltimore 
shop  were  crowding  in  his  mind.  It  was  clear  that 
he  thought  the  graceful  old  Chippendale  table  would 
look  very  fine  smartened  up  with  this  Heppelwhite 
ornamentation;  with  an  oval  panel  in  the  middle, 
with  a  heavy  line  all  around  the  edge,  with  geomet- 
ric figures  at  the  four  corners. 

"Should  you  like  to  sell  it  as  it  stands'?"  we  asked, 
but  thinking  that  a  man  so  ardent  in  affection  for  in- 
lay would  be  hard  to  persuade  to  part  with  an  oppor- 
tunity of  using  it. 

"Oh,  yes.  As  it  stands  you  can  have  it  for  a  dol- 
lar," he  said.  • 

Of  course  it  at  once  became  ours,  and  for  three 
dollars  the  tilting-table  became  ours  too !  And  these 
were  the  prices  at  which  the  dealer  first  offered  them 
—there  was  no  beating  down.  And  therefore  there 
was  again  that  sense  of  pleasure  which  accompanies 
a  pleasant  triumph. 

"I  '11  see  to  the  shipping,"  he  added  casually;  "I 
can  get  time  between  funerals  to  send  them  to  the 
station." 

The  old  Pembroke  table,  not  nearly  the  equal  of 
the  others  in  design,  but  with  its  wood  in  good  con- 
dition, he  prized  more  highly.  And  we  almost  felt 

[244] 


THE  EASTERN  SHORE 

like  buying  it  to  save  it  when  he  explained  his 
reason. 

"You  see,  a  table  with  big  wings  like  that  has  got 
a  lot  of  good  flat  wood  in  it.  I  can  get — let  me  see, 
five  feet  wide,  eight  feet  the  other  way — I  can  get 
forty  square  feet  of  West  Indian  mahogany  out  of  it. 
That  3s  where  I  get  some  money  out  of  old  furniture ! 
I  knock  the  leaves  off,  and  crate  them  up  rough  and 
easy,  and  get  a  good  price  for  all  I  can  send  to  that 
man  I  told  you  of,  in  Baltimore." 

Leaving  his  shop,  after  securing  the  treasures  that 
we  most  cared  for,  we  went  forth  to  see  the  country 
beyond  the  limits  of  the  town. 

A  long  drive  over  the  white  shell  roads,  past  giant 
oaks  in  the  fields  and  holly  bushes  gleaming  with 
glossy  green  and  with  the  blue  of  the  broad  tide- 
water inlets  constantly  coming  into  view,  brought 
us  in  sight  of  many  stately  old  homes,  well  placed, 
with  terraces  and  groves,  and  always  facing  toward 
some  arm  of  the  bay. 

These  inlets,  and  the  fine  old  homes  as  well,  have 
names  well  chosen  and  old  and  full  of  charm. 

The  houses  are  a  delight  to  any  lover  of  the  old, 
for  not  only  do  they  outwardly  possess  beauty  and 
distinction,  but  they  have  wainscoting  in  their  halls, 
and  twirled  balustrades  upon  the  staircases,  and  fire- 

[245] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

places  in  their  drawing  rooms,  and  corner-cupboards 
in  their  dining  rooms — or  buffets,  we  should  call 
them  here  on  the  Eastern  Shore.  The  houses  have 
also  window  seats  in  the  bedrooms,  cranes  in  the 
kitchens,  and  knockers  on  the  doors,  and  in  some  of 
them  there  are  quantities  of  fine  furniture.  And  as 
to  this  point,  one  must  needs  bear  in  mind,  as  else- 
where in  regions  of  fine  houses,  that  at  any  time 
there  may  be  a  sale  and  a  dispersion.  There  had 
been  a  sale  at  one  of  the  great  houses  the  winter  be- 
fore we  were  there. 

We  returned  from  our  long  drive  thrilled  and  filled 
with  the  spirit  of  it  all.  Our  dreams  were  haunted 
by  old  Gilbert  Stuart  gentlemen  in  mulberry-colored 
coats  who  sat  in  fireside  chairs  and  read  in  the  wain- 
scoted rooms  and  took  candles  up  broad  and  easy 
stairs  on  their  way  to  bed. 

Next  day  we  went  to  a  shore  town  with  a  name 
suggestive  of  green  quadrangles  and  stone  halls,  and 
found  ourselves  in  a  small  and  quiet  village  with  a 
number  of  well-kept  houses,  some  small  byways, 
and  a  willow-shaded  landing.  Unimportant,  and 
far  away,  was  the  railroad.  The  Chesapeake  was 
sparkling  and  blue ;  and  the  winding  tidewater  estu- 
aries tempted  with  their  fascination. 

The  inn  was  a  rambling  structure,  part  new  and 

[246] 


THE  EASTERN  SHORE 

part  old,  and  we  were  shown  into  the  older  portion, 
overlooking  the  water,  and  our  room  was  one  that 
was  legendarily  associated  with  a  noted  figure  of 
Colonial  and  Revolutionary  period;  a  room  with 
wainscoted  side,  and  a  fireplace,  and  many  elusory 
and  annoying  drafts. 

Early  in  the  morning  we  took  a  boat,  the  typical 
boat  of  this  part  of  the  world;  a  "cunner" — thus  the 
Shore  pronounces  it,  and  the  word  was  once,  pre- 
sumably, "canoe" ;  but  "canoe"  gives  the  impression 
of  lightness,  airiness,  and  paddles,  while  a  "cunner" 
is  long  and  heavy,  and  carries  a  good  stout  sail,  and 
needs  a  man  and  a  boy  to  handle  it  in  a  wind,  and  is 
capable  of  speed.  "Gunners"  are  made  of  four  hol- 
lowed pine  trunks,  and  fit  the  landscape  just  as  the 
boats  with  prairie-schooner  tops  fit  Como  or  the  la- 
teen sails  fit  the  harbor  of  Salerno. 

We  sailed  up  long  stretches  of  sparkling  estuary, 
past  house  after  house  built  in  1720  or  1740  and  as- 
sociated with  men  who  served  with  Braddock  or 
signed  the  Declaration  or  won  fame  as  general  or 
admiral. 

Sweeping  up  one  of  the  tidewater  inlets  before  a 
sharp  wind,  the  spray  dashed  in  over  the  bow,  and 
our  boatman  adjusted  what  may  be  called  a  wooden 
fin,  to  heighten  the  bow  and  keep  off  the  flying 

[2*7] 


13 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

water.  The  shape  of  the  fin  and  the  purpose  for 
which  it  was  used  seemed  strangely  familiar.  Where 
had  we  seen  such  a  thing  *?  And  then  it  came  to  us. 
In  crossing  from  Monnikendam  to  Marken,  in  a  high 
sea,  the  old  Dutch  skipper,  in  his  ribbed  knee-stock- 
ings, and  trousers  of  wonderful  cut,  and  his  silver- 
buttoned  jacket,  stooped  and  slipped  just  such  a  fin 
into  place  as  a  wave  came  over  the  bow,  remarking 
stolidly  that  out  on  the  North  Sea  it  must  be  "vind- 
isch  und  sturmish."  It  was  curious  to  recognize  the 
similarity  between  the  methods  of  the  Zuyder  Zee 
and  the  Chesapeake. 

Ahead  of  us,  in  the  estuary,  was  a  rounding  curve 
of  land,  a  little  higher  than  the  neighboring  river 
bank.  It  sloped  on  three  sides  gently  and  grassily 
to  the  water.  There  was  a  stretch  of  silvery  sand 
where  the  tide  rose  and  fell  below  the  grass  line. 
There  were  great  elms  in  park-like  plenty.  From 
the  water's  edge  and  the  ruins  of  a  small  landing  a 
broad  path  went  up,  very  straight,  to  an  old  house. 
It  was  Easter  week,  and  that  path,  grassgrown  now, 
was  still  bordered  on  either  side  by  the  green  and  yel- 
low of  daffodils.  We  could  see  that,  as  the  path  ap- 
proached the  house,  it  rose  by  two  stone  steps  to  a 
smooth  terrace  immediately  in  front. 

We  were  rounding  the  bend,  when  a  gust  of  wind 

[248] 


THE  EASTERN  SHORE 

took  us  very  suddenly  and  the  pole  of  the  rudder 
cracked  off  short,  and  the  boatman  turned  the  craft 
toward  the  shore  and  grounded  it  under  the  bank. 
He  would  borrow  an  ax,  he  said,  to  cut  and  trim  a 
new  rudder  pole  from  a  cedar  tree. 

So  we  landed,  to  explore  this  enchanted  land.  We 
walked  under  the  elms  around  the  headland  so  that 
we  might  go  up  the  daffodil  path.  The  house  to 
which  it  led  was  low  and  rambling,  with  wings. 
The  main  part  had  four  dormer  windows  and  was 
bowered  in  honeysuckle.  It  was  empty,  and  in  care 
of  a  negro.  He  came  from  his  cabin,  some  distance 
away,  opened  the  door,  and  told  us  the  owners  would 
be  glad  to  have  us  see  the  house  and  rest  in  the 
shade. 

The  house  was  built  for  hospitality  and  not  for 
solitude.  It  had  individuality.  It  welcomed  us 
although  it  was  empty.  We  entered  the  great  room 
under  the  dormers.  It  had  a  waxed  floor  and  low 
ceiling.  On  the  side  toward  the  daffodil  path  and 
the  water  there  were  two  windows  and  a  door.  On 
the  opposite  side  were  other  two  windows  and  an- 
other door,  and  the  river-like  estuary  so  curved  that 
they  also  looked  out  toward  the  water.  The  rising 
sun  would  shine  in  at  one  side  and  the  setting  sun  at 
the  other.  This  room,  which  had  been  the  library, 

[249] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

was  unusually  long,  and  at  either  end  stood  a  fire- 
place, set  in  a  paneled  and  wainscoted  wall. 

And  how  charming  it  would  be  to  take  such  a 
home  in  such  a  region — to  nil  it  with  old  furniture 
treasures  gathered  hereabouts  and  from  other  regions 
as  old.  Why,  it  would  be  the  very  poetry  of  living ! 
The  gleaming  water,  everywhere  the  magic  touch  of 
a  charming  age,  everywhere  repose  and  peace  and 
beauty,  with  honeysuckle  and  oaks,  with  scarlet  birds, 
with  climbing  vines  and  nodding  dormers,  with  fires 
flaming  joyously  at  each  other  from  opposite  ends 
of  the  noble  library,  and  with  the  long  room,  like 
the  hall  of  the  famous  chateau  of  the  Cher,  "illum- 
inated from  either  side  by  the  flickering  river-light" 
—  what  could  possibly  be  more  felicitous! 

People  can  almost  always  find  the  house  for  which 
they  earnestly  seek,  the  house  which  their  tempera- 
ment and  needs  demand.  Hawthorne,  in  New  Eng- 
land, found  the  Old  Manse  and- the  little  red  house 
at  Stockbridge  Bowl;  Stevenson,  on  the  Pacific, 
found  his  Silverado ;  and  others  may  find  a  Silverado 
or  an  Old  Manse  as  they  alternatively  prefer. 

The  thirty  houses  of  the  Farmington — this  house 
and  other  empty  houses  that  we  found,  along  this 
Eastern  Shore — our  own  old  inn — all  show  what 
may  be  done  by  him  who  would  do  it.  And  always, 

[250] 


THE  EASTERN  SHORE 

a  region  of  such  houses  tells  unmistakably  that  it  is 
a  region  where  charming  old  furniture  may  be  ac- 
quired. 

— Charming  ?  Of  course !  Old  furniture  is  always 
charming !  Why,  even  when  Hardcastle  tried  to  be 
sarcastic,  with  Marlow,  he  could  n't  help  expressing 
the  beauty  and  the  charm  of  the  very  things  that  the 
present  generation  has  come  to  collect  with  such  en- 
thusiasm. "There  's  a  pair  of  silver  candlesticks, 
and  there  's  a  fire-screen,  and  here  's  a  pair  of  brazen- 
nosed  bellows — perhaps  you  may  take  a  fancy  to 
them?  There  are  a  set  of  prints  too,  and  there  's  a 
mahogany  table  that  you  may  see  your  own  face  in." 


CHAPTER  XIII 

/ 

BUYING  APPARENT  WRECKS 

IT  is  not  only  the  pleasure  and  the  fascination  of 
successful  pursuit  that  appeal  to  him  who 
searches  out  old  furniture.  It  is  the  feeling  that 
the  prize  won  is  to  be  established  in  his  house,  and 
that  it  is  to  be  an  ever-present  satisfaction  there. 
For  our  own  part  we  found,  as  many  others  have 
found,  that  the  feelings  and  the  pleasures  are  pre- 
cisely such  as  these.  The  initial  triumph,  the  sense 
of  satisfaction  in  getting  our  own  pieces  of  furniture 
into  the  once-while  inn,  the  keener  pleasure  of  plac- 
ing them  in  the  best  position,  and  the  lasting  satis- 
faction of  having  them  where  their  shape  and  their 
associations  speak  to  us,  are  what  constitute  the 
charm.  And  if  a  number  of  the  articles  cost  but  a 
trifle,  the  pleasure  is  augmented.  Just  as  the  Met- 
ropolitan Museum,  of  New  York,  recently  told  with 
pride  of  the  acquisition  of  a  splendidly  carved  an- 

[252] 


BUYING  APPARENT  WRECKS 

cient  newel  post  and  panels,  secured  in  France,  at  a 
house  in  course  of  demolition,  for  two  dollars  each ! 

A  friend,  who  also  loves  the  old  shapes,  likes  to 
say:  "I  will  get  my  furniture  in  modern  reproduc- 
tions. What  pleasure  is  there  in  buying  junk?" 

Well,  there  certainly  would  be  but  little  pleasure 
in  buying  old  furniture  if  it  were  to  remain  as  junk. 
Apparent  junk  must  be  viewed  with  the  eyes  of  com- 
mon-sense and  faith.  If  a  piece  is  too  badly  broken 
to  be  satisfactorily  repaired  it  ought  not  to  be  ac- 
quired. Of  this  class  was  a  great  four-poster  we 
once  saw,  that  had  possessed  splendidly  carved  posts 
and  pineapple  ornamentation,  but  which,  to  make  it 
fit  into  a  low-eaved  corner,  had  been  ruthlessly  sawed 
off  at  the  tops  of  all  four  posts  to  a  ruinous  short- 
ness ;  and  then  the  sawed-off  pieces  had  been  burned. 
That  bed  was  not  worth  accepting  even  had  it  been 
offered  as  a  gift.  But  many  a  broken  or  hard-used 
article  of  furniture  can  be  restored  to  its  pristine 
strength,  and,  so  far  as  appearance  goes,  may  almost 
fit  the  lilting  old  rhyme  about  being  given  a  polish 
of  so  brilliant  a  hue  as  to  make  it  look  newer  than 
when  it  was  new. 

And  so,  it  is  one  answer  to  our  friend  that  no  pieces 
should  be  gathered  except  those  which  are  suscepti- 
ble to  treatment  (in  our  own  case  he  recognizes,  al- 

[253] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

belt  with  grumblings,  that  there  may  be  something 
in  this  practical  view),  and  it  is  still  another  an- 
swer that  by  far  the  greater  part  of  modern  repro- 
ductions miss  the  precisely  perfect  proportions. 
This,  which  seems  absurdly  unnecessary,  is  just  as 
absurdly  true.  It  is  with  copyists  of  old  furniture 
as  it  is  with  copyists  of  old  buildings:  the  infinite 
personal  care  of  the  past  is  likely  to  be  lacking  in 
these  modern  days,  and  to  copy  accurately  is  an  art 
hard  to  acquire  even  with  the  aid  of  measurements. 
At  the  same  time  the  copyist  feels  an  almost  irresist- 
ible tendency  to  "improve"  upon  the  original  with 
little  changes  or  adaptations  here  and  there :  little  in 
themselves,  perhaps,  such  changes,  but  vastly  impor- 
tant in  effect. 

Moreover,  all  the  fascination  of  the  veritable 
touch  of  the  past,  the  tender  or  stately  charm  of  as- 
sociation, is  lost  in  the  modern  copies  of  the  old. 

Not  only  may  it  be  expressed,  as  a  general  rule, 
that  nothing  of  the  broken  should  be  purchased 
which  is  not  capable  of  good  and  adequate  repair, 
but  conversely  it  may  be  stated  that  nothing  which  is 
wanted  and  which  is  capable  of  repair  should  be 
passed  by  on  account  of  its  wrecked  appearance. 
But  the  art  of  knowing  what  is  reasonably  capable 
of  repair  is  a  difficult  one  to  master. 

[254] 


BUYING  APPARENT  WRECKS 

Naturally  and  unavoidably,  the  beginner  will 
make  some  mistakes.  It  is  only  by  experience,  and  a 
gradually  acquired  knowledge  of  what  it  is  possible 
for  him  to  do  or  to  have  done,  that  he  can  gain  the 
ability  to  decide.  And  what  is  possible  for  one  man 
may  not  be  possible  for  another.  It  is  well  for  a 
collector  to  find  one  of  those  old-fashioned  crafts- 
men, usually  French  or  German,  who  make  a  spe- 
cialty of  doing  curious  and  clever  handiwork. 

But,  although  broken  furniture  ought  often  to  be 
purchased,  one  should  not  permit  himself  the  accum- 
ulation of  broken  glass  or  china.  That  is  something 
which  will  surely  be  regretted,  for  broken  china  gives 
an  effect  of  dilapidation  to  an  entire  house  that  all 
else  in  the  way  of  strength  and  solidity  cannot  off- 
set. It  is  seldom  that  broken  china  or  glass,  except 
for  very  simple  breaks,  can  be  so  repaired  as  to  be 
satisfactory  in  both  strength  and  appearance ;  and  if 
it  cannot  be  thus  repaired — if  it  be  a  pitcher  with  a 
handle  gone,  or  a  sugar  bowl  with  a  great  chip  in  its 
side,  or  a  platter  with  a  section  missing — do  not  lis- 
ten to  the  voice  of  the  inward  tempter,  telling  of 
what  a  rare  design  it  is  or  of  what  a  beautiful  color. 

Except  for  a  museum,  all  furniture  and  china 
should  be  capable  of  handling  and  use.  There  is  lit- 
tle pleasure,  and  much  inevitable  dissatisfaction,  in 

[255] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

the  possession  of  china  that  must  not  be  touched  or 
chairs  that  must  not  be  sat  upon,  in  tables  precar- 
iously patched  or  glass  bowls  perilously  pieced. 

With  furniture,  much  can  be  done.  In  our  own 
collecting,  in  the  earlier  days,  we  allowed  a  number 
of  valuable  articles  to  escape  us  because  we  did  not 
then  have  the  necessary  knowledge  and  experience. 
But  when  one  reflects  that  many  of  the  most  sincere 
dealers,  who  really  love  the  goods  they  handle,  sell 
old  furniture  just  as  they  find  it,  whether  broken  or 
whole,  one  begins  to  realize  that  there  must  be  high 
potentialities  of  mending. 

In  our  own  experience,  no  piece  that  we  ever  re- 
stored was  so  broken,  so  utterly  a  wreck,  as  a  mighty 
fireside  chair  that  we  picked  up  on  one  of  our  South- 
ern visits.  It  is  so  tall  as  to  hide  with  its  magiste- 
rial back  the  tallest  man  who  seeks  its  comfort;  it  is 
portly  of  width  (it  is  three  feet  and  ten  inches  across 
the  arms)  and  of  stately,  rounding  curves.  In  age 
it  is  well  over  a  century. 

When  discovered,  in  a  shed,  the  chickens  had  been 
roosting  upon  it,  which  was  far  from  adding  a  dis- 
tinguished air,  and  there  was  no  trace  whatever  of 
the  seat.  That  had  completely  vanished.  The 
leather  covering  was  hanging,  here  and  there  on  the 
sides  and  back,  in  strips  and  fragments.  The  chair 

[256] 


BUYING  APPARENT  WRECKS 

had  suffered  the  penalties  of  popularity.  Little  was 
left,  indeed,  but  the  outline  shape  and  the  frame- 
work, but  the  framework  was  mighty  and  the  shape 
was  fine.  Yet  even  the  frame,  although  intrinsi- 
cally strong,  had  become  racked  and  loosened. 

But  the  chair  was  full  of  possibilities,  and  was 
purchased.  Wrapped  in  burlaps,  it  was  shipped  up 
by  water  and  rail.  This  wrapping  was  for  two  rea- 
sons. For  once,  enthusiastic  collectors  though  we 
were,  we  fear  we  were  not  proud  of  having  quite 
such  a  forlorn  wreck,  quite  such  a  thing 
of  rags  and  tatters,  carried  into  our  home, 
past  the  eyes  of  our  friends.  But  better  rea- 
son than  this  regard  for  appearances  was  our  desire 
not  to  let  the  freight  handlers  know  how  bad  it 
looked.  It  was  sure  of  more  careful  handling, 
wrapped  carefully,  than  as  an  apparent  jumble  of 
fragments.  And  we  knew  that  until  it  should  be  re- 
paired it  could  not  stand  much  more  of  hard  usage. 
The  chair  cost  four  dollars,  but  that  included  wrap- 
ping in  new  burlaps  and  the  cartage. 

The  pads  on  the  sides  and  back  were  fortunately 
still  in  place;  they  were  of  good  curled  horsehair; 
and  as  their  proportions  would  bear  mightily  on  the 
comfort  of  the  rehabilitated  chair,  they  were  taken 
off  carefully  and  kept  separate,  so  as  to  resume  their 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

places  unaltered  in  quantity,  and  each  pad  was  thor- 
oughly cleansed  by  a  soaking  in  gasoline. 

The  next  task  was  to  take  out  all  the  tacks  and 
nails.  And  although  the  time-worn  query  of  where 
all  the  pins  go  to  is  still  unanswered,  we  felt  that  we 
had  found  a  complete  reply  to  the  question  of  where 
all  the  tacks  go.  For  it  seemed  as  if  their  number 
in  that  chair  was  legion.  Every  one  was  taken  out, 
thoroughly  to  clean  the  chair,  and  to  make  sure  that 
old  nails  should  not  interfere  with  the  placing  of 
the  new  ones,  and  to  preclude  the  possibility  of  an- 
noying scratchiness  through  the  new  upholstering. 

Then  the  great  frame  was  thoroughly  blocked, 
for  the  old  blocks  had  fallen  away  and  permitted  it 
to  waver.  Square  new  blocks  were  placed  where  the 
solid  mahogany  legs  join  the  frame  of  the  seat,  and 
firmness  was  restored. 

The  chair  stood,  now,  a  bare  wooden  frame,  and 
the  next  task  was  to  scrape  and  polish  it;  an  easy 
task,  because  all  the  wood  that  was  to  show  was  the 
four  short  legs  and  the  strong  cross-braces — strong 
enough,  these,  to  illustrate  the  old  rule  in  regard  to 
chairs,  that  the  heavier  the  underbracing  the  older 
the  chair. 

A  new  seat  was  next  provided.  Originally,  the 
chair  had  no  springs,  but  there  was  no  reason  why 

[258] 


Heppelwhite  Low-boy  and  a  Heppel white  Fireside  Chair 
Restored  from  Wreck 


BUYING  APPARENT  WRECKS 

springs  should  not  be  used,  and  so  a  number  of  up- 
holsterer's springs  were  set  in  place,  with  webbing 
and  hair.  The  pads  were  then  replaced  on  the  back 
and  the  sides,  and  stout  muslin  was  stretched  over 
all. 

The  chair,  which  had  thus  gradually  grown  and 
developed,  was  no  longer  just  a  form,  but  a  form 
clothed -in  white,  and  showing  by  this  means  all  of 
its  proper  lines. 

Next  came  the  final  upholstering.  We  needed  it 
to  be  in  yellow,  and  so  it  was  covered  with  a  yellow 
linen  taffeta,  fastened  with  brass  nails  all  around  the 
edges — a  total  of  precisely  379  brass  heads  in  sight! 
Yet  they  are  scarcely  noticeable,  so  long  are  the 
curving  lines  they  follow  and  so  merged  are  they  in 
the  yellow  covering  of  this  most  comfortable  old 
Heppelwhite  fireside  chair. 

_  And  now  the  chair  stood  once  more  perfect :  once 
more  it  was  what  its  builder  had  intended  it  to  be,  a 
thing  of  beauty  and  promising  to  be  a  source  of  com- 
fortable joy  forever.  And  it  may  be  added  that  a 
point  to  consider,  in  choosing  such  a  broad-backed 
chair,  with  arms,  is  to  see  that  the  line  of  the  arm 
continues,  with  a  slight  projection,  to  the  back  of  the 
chair,  thus  giving  a  comfortable  elbow  support 
throughout  the  whole  width  of  either  side.  Num- 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

bers  of  these  old  chairs  were  made  with  the  line  of 
the  arm  merged  wholly  into  the  sheltering  sides,  and 
they  thereby  lack  in  comfort. 

No  one  can  understand  the  handicraftsmanship  of 
the  old  days  till  he  has  stripped  a  fine  old  chair  to  its 
skeleton.  Many  a  little  structural  secret  will  be  dis- 
covered which  would  never  have  been  guessed  had 
the  chair  merely  been  sent  to  an  upholsterer,  with- 
out examination.  For  example,  with  this  great 
fireside  chair  it  is  really  marvelous  that,  without 
weakening  the  structure  a  particle,  there  should  be 
long  narrow  spaces,  almost  the  length  of  the  back 
and  the  sides,  left  in  the  framework  for  the  purpose 
of  allowing  the  covering  to  be  drawn  through  and 
cinched.  No  upholsterer's  needle  was  necessary  on 
this  chair,  and  every  line  of  its  shape  is  clean-cut  and 
clear. 

Early  in  your  collecting,  search  out  some  man  who 
is  a  deft  repairer  of  furniture,  a  man  who  has  come 
to  some  inheritance  of  the  ways  of  the  olden  time; 
and  then  fasten  to  him  with  hooks  of  steel.  The 
man  who  will  "putter"  patiently  over  a  broken  frag- 
ment, who  will  handle  it  intelligently,  is  a  prize  to 
the  lover  of  old  furniture.  For  there  are  many  re- 
pairs which  one  cannot  do  himself;  many  which  only 
the  skilled  craftsman  can  accomplish. 

[262] 


BUYING  APPARENT  WRECKS 

Good  fortune  gave  us  the  acquaintance  of  an  old 
German  who  had  a  little  shop  in  that  picturesquely 
rambling  part  of  New  York  still  known  as  Green- 
wich Village,  and  at  that  queer  corner  where  Wav- 
erley  Place  bifurcates.  He  died  a  year  or  so  ago; 
he  and  his  wife,  who  was  his  companion  in  a 
strangely  solitary  existence  in  the  heart  of  the  great 
city,  were  taken  away  by  a  call  which  came  with  lit- 
tle warning  and  simultaneously  to  both  of  them. 
But  while  he  lived  he  was  the  perfection  of  a  furni- 
ture repairer. 

He  was  from  Mainz ;  this  man  of  patient  skill  and 
infinite  pains ;  and,  learning  that  we  knew  his  native 
town,  he  spoke,  now  and  then,  with  a  shy  pleasure, 
of  the  majestic  Rhine,  of  the  islands,  of  the  vine- 
yards and  the  wine,  of  the  old-time  streets  of  Mainz, 
and  of  the  great  old  Cathedral,  the  Dom,  with 
houses  built  so  closely  against  it  as  to  leave  only  two 
narrow  entrance  ways  into  its  wide  interior.  His 
eyes  glowed  with  pleasure  at  a  reference  to  his  be- 
loved Mainz  or  to  the  Rhine ;  but  it  never  stopped  his 
slow  and  patient  work,  his  thoughtful,  near-sighted 
peering.  He  possessed  in  rare  degree  a  knowledge 
of  the  furniture  craftsmanship  of  the  Old  World. 
He  could  polish  to  perfection,  too — but  he  was  old, 
and  his  arm  easily  grew  weary,  and  so,  although  now 

[263] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

and  then  polishing  a  piece  for  us,  he  taught  us  the 
valuable  art  by  careful  precept  and  example,  so  that 
if  we  wished  we  could  do  it  ourselves  on  any  of  our 
own  furniture. 

He  had  little  patience  with  those  who  did  not  pos- 
sess some  knowledge  of  furniture  making,  and  it  was 
amusing  to  see  him  use  shiny  varnish  or,  worse  yet, 
what  he  called  "daub,"  for  such  customers  as  he  did 
not  consider  of  the  elect.  "It  is  just  so  good  for 
them,"  he  would  say  with  a  shrug  of  the  shoulders. 
"They  know  not  the  difference,  they!"  He  had 
goodly  store  of  old  mahogany  boards,  for  use  in 
mending,  and  could  do  wonders  with  them. 

His  apron  of  blue  ticking,  his  dry-smoke  cigar,  his 
favorite  phrase  following  his  peering  examination; 
"I  make  it  all  right!  I  make  it  flush  mit  dat!"  his 
nodding  self-communion  as  he  planned  how  to  go 
about  some  difficult  job,  all  were  suggestive  of  the 
completed  success  that  was  sure  to  follow.  It  was  a 
pleasure  to  watch  his  delicate  handling  of  a  piece  of 
French  Boulle,  wrecked  by  the  steam  heat  of  an 
American  home,  or  his  masterful  relaying  of  the  in- 
lay of  a  shattered  Sheraton  table. 

One  can  usually  find  such  a  man  in  any  of  the 
great  cities.  Generally,  too,  such  a  man's  prices  are 
inversely  as  to  his  skill.  This  old  German  carved  for 

[264] 


BUYING  APPARENT  WRECKS 

us,  in  mahogany,  a  piece  of  ornamentation  several 
inches  long,  to  replace  a  lost  fragment  and  match  a 
piece  on  the  opposite  side  of  a  table;  the  copy  was 
exact,  the  carving  was  fine,  and  the  charge  was  only 
half  a  dollar! 

An  especially  difficult  little  job  was  the  straight- 
ening of  the  warp  in  one  half  of  the  top  of  a  swing- 
and-turn  fine  mahogany  card-table ;  one  of  those  tops 
that  turn  on  a  pivot  and  fold  up  into  half  space. 
The  table  had  drifted  into  a  kitchen  before  we  ac- 
quired it,  and  had  been  used  for  ironing  and  press- 
ing clothes,  and  one  of  the  halves  was  exceedingly 
warped. 

The  man  of  Mainz  tried,  first,  the  usual  panacea 
of  removing  the  offending  board,  scraping  off  the 
varnish,  wetting  the  board  upon  the  reverse  side,  and 
then  letting  it  stand  in  the  sun.  But  this  simple- 
seeming  remedy  for  once  would  not  answer,  effica- 
cious though  it  generally  is.  Then  he  studied  it 
long  and  carefully.  "I  cut  it  into  strips !"  he  cried 
exultantly.  Whereupon  he  cut  it  into  six  pieces 
and,  reversing  them  alternately  as  he  laid  them 
down,  and  using  the  plane  a  little,  he  triumphed 
completely.  There  was  about  a  quarter  of  an  inch 
lost  in  sawdust,  and  for  this  width  he  put  in  a  strip 
of  mahogany  from  one  of  his  many  boards ;  and  the 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

job  was  done.  And  so  beautifully  glued  and  pol- 
ished were  the  pieces  that  it  is  almost  impossible  to 
discover  the  joinings,  even  by  close  examination. 

But  there  was  one  time  when  even  the  old  German 
could  not  help  us,  once  when  we  learned  that  every- 
thing is  not  so  easy  as  it  seems.  We  had  found  two 
oval  Sheraton  tea-boards  (one  thinks  of  Franklin's 
letter  home  to  his  wife,  telling  her  of  the  English 
way  of  using  tea-board  and  tea-cups).  The  tea- 
boards  were  of  rare  design,  delicately  inlaid  in  the 
centre  and  brass-handled  on  the  ends.  But  the  encir- 
cling upright  edges  of  thin  wood,  an  inch  in  height, 
had  left  their  sockets  and  sprung  out  of  place,  and 
unless  this  could  be  remedied  the  tea-boards  would 
be  hopeless  wrecks. 

But  they  seemed  to  be  particularly  easy  to  repair ; 
it  was  almost  the  kind  of  thing  we  could  have  done 
ourselves,  so  we  rashly  thought,  even  though  we  had 
then  had  but  little  experience  in  repairing.  But, 
alas !  it  was  not  an  easy  thing  at  all.  The  old  Ger- 
man solemnly  shook  his  head.  It  irked  him  to  say 
that  there  was  something  he  could  not  do.  But  the 
boards  must,  he  said,  go  to  some  one  who  had  a 
steaming  room  and  could  steam  the  rims  into  shape. 
No  glue  could  possibly  make  the  strips,  as  they  were, 
stick  in  their  precarious  grooves.  "If  they  were  but 

[266] 


A  New  York  chair  made      A  Pennsylvania  chair 
before  1750  of  1790 


With  splat ;  therefore       Simple  design  for 
made  in  Great  Britain  a  porch 


What  is  termed  an  ' 
tension  Back" 


Locally  called  a 
string " 


Fiddle- 


Windsor  Chairs 


BUYING  APPARENT  WRECKS 

square-cornered!"  and  he  shrugged  his  shoulders  in 
despair. 

Finally  the  man  with  a  steaming  outfit  was  found, 
a  French  cabinet-maker  and  repairer  so  far  over  on 
the  East  Side  as  to  be  beyond  the  numbered  avenues 
and  on  a  lettered  one.  He  was  an  expert  worker 
and  at  the  same  time  an  enthusiast.  He  did  the 
needful  steaming,  and  he  found  it  necessary,  too,  to 
make  a  mold  the  exact  size  of  the  rail-edges,  for  the 
forming  of  a  new  section  of  rail.  All  of  which  was  an 
object-lesson  as  to  the  difficulty  of  doing  some  repairs. 

Of  course,  in  this  case  the  game  was  worth  the 
candle;  and  being  human,  it  soothed  us  for  our 
worry  and  trouble  that,  after  paying  the  skillful 
Frenchman's  most  reasonable  charge,  he  courteously 
asked  permission  to  copy  the  boards,  so  highly  did 
he  admire  them. 

A  comparatively  simple  case  of  repair,  though  at 
first  it  had  much  the  appearance  of  being  hopeless, 
was  in  regard  to  a  fine  mahogany  table  with  claw- 
and-ball  feet,  dating  back  into  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury. Such  a  wreck  it  was,  that  the  man  who  un- 
earthed it  charged  only  a  dollar  for  it  and  then  be- 
lieved that  he  was  taking  an  unfair  advantage! 
"Don't  buy  it,"  he  said;  "you  can't  possibly  get  it  re- 
paired, and  I  don't  like  to  sell  such  a  thing." 

[269] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

And  he  would  have  been  right  had  it  been  our  in- 
tention to  have  it  restored  as  it  originally  was. 
That  would  have  been  impossible,  or  at  least  so  dif- 
ficult as  to  cost  an  unreasonable  sum.  It  was  a  table, 
two  legs  of  which  turned  most  unexpectedly  on 
wooden  hinges,  to  support  queer  wings.  It  was  a 
highly  elaborate  affair,  and  must  have  been  the  pride  \ 
of  some  one's  heart  in  an  old  Colonial  home. 

It  was  a  pity  to  reduce  its  dimensions;  but  it  was 
best  to  restore  as  much  as  possible,  and  without  re- 
duction nothing  at  all  could  be  done.  Heroic  treat- 
ment was  imperatively  called  for. 

The  top  was  so  mangled  as  to  be  worthless.  But 
a  wing,  hanging  precariously  by  a  broken  hinge,  was 
made  into  the  top  by  the  man  of  Mainz.  Then,  re- 
taining the  fine  original  four  legs  and  all  of  the 
frame,  and  having  it  all  polished,  the  table  became  a 
beauty,  and  its  surface  was  still  considerable,  being 
three  feet  nine  by  one  foot  eleven.  Upon  the  sides 
it  was  unavoidable,  in  the  rej  uvenation,  that  the  orig- 
inal wooden  hinge  should  show;  but  such  a  blemish 
may  readily  be  overcome  by  spreading  over  the  side 
a  covering  of  veneer. 

The  restoration  of  a  fine  Heppel white  piece,  which 
had  been  the  lower  half  of  a  high-boy  or  perhaps  of 
a  cabinet  desk,  is  another  illustration  of  the  miracles 

[270] 


BUYING  APPARENT  WRECKS 

that  can  be  done.  The  upper  part  having  vanished 
into  limbo,  there  was  only  an  open  space  where  the 
top  ought  to  stand,  and  the  veneer  and  inlay  had  all 
sprung  from  the  drawer  fronts  and  from  the  face  of 
the  framework  and  were  hanging  loose  in  dejected 
sheets.  The  satisfactoriness  of  design,  and  the 
beauty  of  the  wood  itself  and  of  the  inlay  that  was 
still  upon  the  tapering  legs,  made  it  seem  worth 
while  to  take  some  trouble. 

And  it  was  not  so  desperate  a  matter,  after  all. 
The  veneer  was  entirely  removed  and  all  the  glue 
cleaned  off.  Then  the  veneer  was  carefully  relaid 
— and  with  that  simple  task  the  thing  was  done,  ex- 
cept for  the  top;  and  for  that,  a  new  top  was  cut 
from  a  fine  piece  of  mahogany.  The  very  simplic- 
ity of  many  such  a  task  in  the  hands  of  an  intelli- 
gent and  skillful  cabinet  worker  is  often  a  surprise 
even  to  those  who  have  had  experience  in  restor- 
ations. 

We  had  a  chair,  of  Chippendale  design,  so  filled 
with  worm-holes  that  it  seemed  an  impossibility  to 
restore  it;  and  the  bottom  ends  of  three  of  the  legs 
were  so  worm-eaten  as  to  be  positively  feathery. 
There  were  special  reasons  why  we  wished  to  pre- 
serve this  chair.  Nor  was  the  task  a  specially  diffi- 
cult one,  in  spite  of  appearances.  First,  corrosive 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

sublimate  was  painted  over  all  the  holes.  This  was 
colorless,  and  effectually  disposed  of  any  life  that 
might  exist  in  the  depths.  Next  a  cement  of  bees- 
wax and  resin  was  applied,  to  fill  the  holes,  and  it 
was  mixed  with  enough  of  dry  vermilion  to  give  the 
needful  color. 

A  simple  way  to  apply  such  a  cement  is  to  run  it 
in  with  a  chisel  heated  in  a  candle  flame,  using  a 
worn-out  chisel,  as  its  temper  may  be  ruined  by  the 
heat.  Lay  the  cement  on  the  hole  and  draw  the 
heated  chisel  over  it.  Then,  with  a  sharp  knife, 
scrape  off  all  that  is  superfluous. 

The  chair  was  now  ready  for  the  German  cabinet- 
maker. He  cut  the  feathery  bottoms  from  the  three 
offending  legs,  taking  from  an  inch  and  a  half  to 
three  inches  from  each,  and  then,  with  the  care  that 
goes  only  with  workers  of  his  class,  he  modeled  three 
new  pieces  to  match.  And  it  is  not  an  easy  thing  to 
do,  with  an  old-time,  hand-made  chair  whose  legs 
run  down  in  different  and  heedful  proportions. 

With  small  things,  wonders  can  often  be  worked. 
There  was  a  Sheffield-plate  candlestick,  ten  and  a 
quarter  inches  high,  of  absolutely  perfect  shape,  but 
broken  into  two  pieces  and  lop-sidedly  fastened  with 
a  rat-tail  file  pushed  up  through  the  middle  where 
the  cement  filling  had  fallen  out.  It  was  a  wob- 
[272] 


BUYING  APPARENT  WRECKS 

bling,  broken  wreck;  it  was  excessively  dirty;  and  it 
seems  preposterously  impossible  to  say  that  all  the 
owner  wanted  for  it  was  ten  cents;  one  cent  an  inch 
and  the  final  quarter  inch  thrown  in ! 

The  ten  cents  was  at  once  forthcoming,  and  the 
seller  was  pleased.  It  was  so  far  from  being  a  case 
of  belittling  on  the  part  of  the  purchaser;  of  "It  is 
naught,  it  is  naught,  saith  the  buyer :  but  when  he  is 
gone  his  way,  then  he  boasteth";  that  it  was  the 
seller  who  belittled  it  and  who  was  ready  to  boast  of 
having  got  anything  at  all  for  so  worthless  a  thing. 

We  took  it  to  a  silversmith,  for  it  was  a  case  for 
delicate  work.  It  was  beautifully  mended  and  pol- 
ished, and  would  now  command  a  considerable  price 
at  any  antique  shop. 

More  doubtful  was  an  impulse  which  led  us  to 
secure,  one  day,  a  silver-plated  soup  tureen,  corpu- 
lent in  shape  and  long  in  the  legs.  For  a  soup  tu- 
reen it  had  a  lofty,  not  to  say  spindly,  aspect,  and  al- 
though it  might  once  have  had  pretensions  as  a  sil- 
ver-plated article,  almost  the  last  of  the  plating  had 
disappeared.  There  was,  however,  much  of  the 
graceful  about  the  article  if  it  could  but  find  its 
proper  niche  in  the  world. 

One  day,  at  Tiffany's,  he  of  the  favrile  glass,  we 
saw  a  workman  securing  a  beautiful  green  color  by 

[  273  ] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

brushing  acid  over  bronze — that  shade  of  green 
which  gives  a  metal  the  aspect  of  the  pieces  dug  up 
at  Herculaneum.  Here  was  the  hint — and  acid 
was  experimented  with  upon  the  tureen.  But  it  was 
not  of  the  same  metal  as  that  upon  which  the  work- 
man had  been  operating,  and  acid  only  turned  it 
black.  But  it  was  an  idea  not  to  be  relinquished, 
and  there  was  further  experiment,  and  finally  a 
green  paint,  diluted  to  attenuated  thinness,  was 
stroked  over  the  silver-denuded  tureen,  making  it  the 
color  of  beautiful  green  bronze.  The  village  black- 
smith was  next  seen  and  he  cut  a  hole  through  the 
cover  of  the  tureen.  Then,  through  the  lid,  a  fat 
lamp-bowl  was  set,  the  hole  where  the  soup-ladle 
handle  used  to  go  through  giving  a  space  in  which  to 
get  at  the  filling  hole  of  the  lamp.  A  green  shade 
of  proper  hue  was  easy  to  find,  and  we  had  a  unique 
and  most  pleasing  lamp ! 

So  strangely  are  some  things  acquired  and  with 
such  sequence  of  good  fortune,  that  one  is  over  and 
over  again  tempted  to  believe  that  nothing  is  impos- 
sible. Now,  here  are  two  actual  happenings.  And 
they  are  told  as  encouragement  to  those  who  seek  in 
hopes  of  finding. 

A  mirror  came  to  us  as  a  gift;  a  good  mirror,  in  a 
narrow  mahogany  frame,  the  measurements  being 

[274] 


BUYING  APPARENT  WRECKS 

eighteen  inches  by  fourteen.  It  had  been  a  dressing- 
table  mirror  and  had  once  swung  between  two  slen- 
der uprights  above  some  little  drawers,  to  which  they 
were  attached.  It  was  a  good  mirror  even  by  itself, 
but  we  naturally  regretted  the  absence  of  the  drawers 
and  the  uprights,  which  had  been  lost  or  destroyed. 

Then,  at  an  auction  sale,  not  long  afterward,  what 
should  be  put  up  but  a  set  of  little  drawers,  for  the 
top  of  a  dressing-table,  surmounted  by  slender  pil- 
lars between  which  a  mirror  was  intended  to  swing. 
The  wood  was  of  mahogany,  with  profusion  of  fine 
inlay.  But  there  was  no  mirror!  And  on  that  ac- 
count there  was  no  competition  in  bidding. 

When  we  say,  literally,  that  without  changing  the 
mirror  frame  or  the  uprights,  that  mirror  which  had 
come  to  us  from  one  source  precisely  fitted  the  frame 
and  uprights  picked  up  at  an  auction,  surely  nothing 
could  be  much  more  curious. 

Once  upon  a  time  we  became  the  possessors  of  a 
brass  fire-shovel  with  an  exceptionally  fine  handle, 
but  with  the  shovel  portion  so  worn  out  as  to  be  both 
useless  and  unattractive.  A  year  afterward,  for 
twenty-five  cents,  we  secured  a  brass  shovel  of  fine 
Openwork  pattern,  which  had  no  handle!  And  it 
precisely  matched  our  handle !  A  worker  in  metals 
put  the  two  acquisitions  together,  and  the  result  is  an 

[275] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

unusually  long-handled  fire-shovel,  of  fine  design 
and  workmanship,  all  of  a  brass  which  takes  a  splen- 
did polish,  and  with  the  parts  so  well  matched  that 
no  one  could  ever  guess,  what  is  really  the  case,  that 
the  two  pieces  came  together  from  places  six  hundred 
miles  apart. 


[276] 


CHAPTER  XIV 

REPAIRING  AND   POLISHING  AT    HOME 

IT  is  not  as  if  the  dictum  of  Miles  Standish  about 
doing  a  thing  one's  self  could  always  be  applied 
to  putting  into  good  condition  old  furniture  that 
has  suffered  from  age  and  use.  Often,  and  perhaps 
generally,  if  one  wants  an  article  of  furniture  well 
repaired,  the  best  way  is  to  send  it  to  an  expert 
craftsman.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  there  are  a 
great  many  things  which  one  can  do  one's  self,  and 
which  it  is  convenient  and  advantageous,  as  well  as 
economical,  to  do.  The  cultivation  of  a  certain 
handiness  and  adaptability  in  regard  to  old  furni- 
ture tends  to  increase  the  enjoyment  of  the  collector. 
"Now,  what  are  you  going  to  do  with  that?" 
asked  a  friend,  as  he  looked  at  a  shabby  wooden 
chair,  perhaps  no  older  than  1815,  whose  top  rail 
was  missing  from  the  back,  leaving  curving,  horn- 

[277] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

like  projections  above  the  middle  slat  and  the  slender 
spokes.  He  smiled  as  he  asked  the  question,  and 
there  was  the  suggestion  of  gentle  scoff  in  his  voice. 

In  truth,  there  was  not  a  promising  outlook  for 
filling  the  gap  where  that  top  slat  ought  to  be  (slats, 
it  should  be  said,  are  strips  running  horizontally 
across  a  chair  back,  and  a  splat  is  the  piece  run- 
ning vertically  from  top  to  bottom  in  the  middle), 
for  we  knew  from  the  mate  of  the  chair  that  a  new 
slat  would  be  hard  to  make.  For  one  reason,  it 
would  have  to  be  bent  on  a  difficult  and  unusual 
curve,  and  unless  made  precisely  right  it  would  look 
decidedly  unattractive. 

We  looked  at  it  thoughtfully.  "You  mean,  that 
it  is  a  subject  for  the  scrap-heap?'7 

"Well,  you  've  got  to  get  a  scrap-heap  some  day," 
he  responded  airily,  "and  you  may  as  well  begin 
with  this  old  chair — like  those  early  Ohio  settlers, 
you  know,  that  took  a  nonogenarian  along  to  begin 
the  cemetery  with." 

In  the  face  of  this  friendly  taunt  we  were  bound 
to  make  use  of  that  chair.  And,  when  the  idea 
came,  it  was,  like  many  another  illuminative  idea, 
extremely  simple.  The  curving  projections  were 
sawed  off,  close  above  the  middle  slat.  The  knobs 
were  planed  and  smoothed  into  a  receding  curve. 

[278] 


REPAIRING  AND   POLISHING  AT   HOME 

Then,  as  the  chair  had  always  been  a  painted  one,  it 
was  sandpapered,  and  painted  a  cream  white,  and 
placed  in  front  of  a  dressing-table;  and  guests  have 
used  it  there  and  expressed  their  wonder  that  there 
should  be  such  a  fetching,  short-backed  chair. 

Before  one  can  really  come  to  the  love  of  furni- 
ture he  must  patiently  and  personally  handle  it  till 
he  has  patiently  and  personally  learned  it. 

You  are,  say,  more  or  less  hazy  in  regard  to  the 
actual  construction  and  merits  of  a  Chippendale 
chair.  Well,  after  first  catching  the  chair,  choosing 
a  shabby  one  that  needs  general  restoration  and  pol- 
ishing, take  a  stout,  broad-bladed  knife  and  begin  to 
scrape.  Hold  the  edge  of  the  knife  to  the  wood  at 
right  angles  and  draw  steadily  toward  you.  The 
chair,  in  its  checkered  career,  has  probably  had  sev- 
eral coats  of  varnish  and  probably  a  coat  of  paint. 
Work  hard,  and  see  that  every  particle  of  this  coat- 
ing falls  to  the  floor.  No  injury  will  come  to  the 
wood  if  you  use  care.  Good  mahogany  seems  glad 
to  be  scraped,  and  is  not  easily  scratched  or  raised  in 
shavings,  when  the  knife  is  heavy  and  straight  and 
the  strokes  even  and  if  there  are  no  digging  motions. 
Instead  of  a  knife,  glass  is  used  by  some,  but  it  is 
treacherous  and  easily  scratches. 

As  the  chair  is  cleared  to  the  wood,  and  you  thus 

[270] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

become  on  intimate  terms  with  it,  you  will  increase- 
ingly  realize  that  the  patient,  personal  touch  is  caus- 
ing you  to  take  in  to  the  full  every  point  of  outline 
and  beauty.  As  each  corner  is  finished  you  will  no- 
tice not  only  the  curves  but  the  mode  of  construc- 
tion; as  you  work  on,  over  the  curves  of  the  perfor- 
ated splat  and  the  shape  of  the  stalwart  legs,  you 
will  begin  to  understand  a  Chippendale  chair,  you 
will  see  why  this  cabinet-maker  of  St.  Martin's  Lane 
could  give  his  name  to  a  school  of  design,  as  the  mon- 
archs  of  France,  on  their  side  of  the  Channel,  gave 
theirs.  As  the  American  dealers  of  to-day  patter  of 
Chippendale  and  Heppelwhite  and  Sheraton,  and 
perhaps  even  of  that  Shearer  whose  fame  was  almost 
lost  in  the  glory  of  his  rivals,  so,  in  the  shops  of 
Paris,  the  dealers'  talk  is  punctuated  with  the  famous 
Quatorze  and  Quinze  and  Seize. 

By  the  time  you  have  your  chair  scraped  and  clean 
you  have  not  only  learned  the  merits  of  construction, 
but  you  have  discovered  the  faults  and  weaknesses 
that  time  has  brought  to  your  specimen. 

Even  the  beginner  can  do  many  things  toward  res- 
toration, and  it  is  a  particularly  keen  pleasure  to  see 
a  battered  treasure  return  to  beauty  under  one's  own 
hands.  A  table-top  comes  to  mind  as  one  of  the 
things  that  yielded  some  of  these  thrills.  It  had 
seven  marks,  round  and  sunken,  where  the  wood  was 

[280] 


Empire  Book  Case,  Unrestored,  of  about  1810,  with  Rosette  Brasses 
and  Claw  Feet,  and  Glass  in  Latticed  Design 


REPAIRING  AND   POLISHING  AT   HOME 

crushed  by  sharp  blows,  apparently  from  a  hammer. 
An  old  cabinet-maker  had  told  us  how  to  raise  such 
dents,  and  we  followed  his  directions  although  with 
misgivings  as  to  success.  Water  was  dropped  in 
each  depression ;  blotting-paper  was  laid  over  it,  and 
a  warm  flatiron,  not  so  warm  as  to  scorch  the  wood, 
was  placed  over  each  blotting-paper.  The  old  cab- 
inet-maker had  smiled  queerly  when  he  said  that  it 
would  need  many  applications.  For  a  whole  day, 
each  time  those  irons  were  found  cool  more  water 
was  applied,  with  a  blotter  and  another  mildly  warm 
iron.  Slowly,  magic  was  done;  slowly  the  wood 
swelled  and  rose !  Fortunately,  no  wood  was  miss- 
ing. The  blows  had  merely  sunk  into  the  table 
without  breaking  it.  Moisture  and  heat  gradually 
swelled  the  sunken  fibre  and  it  resumed  its  old 
smooth  surface,  while  at  the  same  time  there  was  no 
effect  whatever  upon  the  wood  surrounding  the 
dents,  which  therefore  remained  level  and  smooth. 

Hammer  dents,  it  is  well  to  remark,  ought  always 
to  be  looked  upon  with  suspicion,  and  the  piece  of 
furniture  upon  which  they  are  found  should  be  ex- 
amined, as  to  authenticity,  with  unusual  care,  for 
the  making  of  such  dents  is  a  trick  often  resorted  to 
by  the  unscrupulous  to  give  a  false  appearance  of 
age  to  a  counterfeit. 

The  most  effective  way  .to  treat  fine  woods,  after 

[283] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

they  have  been  scraped  clean  and  repaired,  is  by 
means  of  what  is  known  as  French  polishing.  And 
French  polishing  may  be  done  at  one's  own  home, 
with  keen  pleasure  in  the  result  of  one's  efforts',  and, 
it  may  be  added,  with  a  very  considerable  financial 
saving,  for  it  is  an  expensive  kind  of  work  to  have 
done  by  a  professional  polisher.  It  is  a  fascinating 
art  to  understand,  and  here  is  how  it  is  done. 

Let  us  presume  that  the  article  to  be  polished  is 
of  mahogany — and  yet,  except  for  very  slight  modi- 
fications called  for  by  questions  of  coloring  and  fill- 
ing, the  rules  will  fit  almost  any  wood. 

First,  the  piece  of  mahogany,  after  it  is  scraped  to 
the  wood,  is  rubbed  with  powdered  pumice-stone  and 
boiled  linseed  oil — rubbed  hard  and  long  with  a 
rough  woolen  rag,  such  as  a  piece  of  ingrain  carpet  or 
horse-blanket.  Seeing  a  workman  in  the  Rue  St. 
Antoine  at  this  very  work,  and  examining  his  rubber, 
we  found  that  he  had  a  stone  within  it  to  give  a  hard- 
ness to  the  pressure  of  the  cloth  and  oil  and  pumice- 
stone  upon  the  wood.  Since  then,  with  us,  a  stone  is 
used  and  it  is  certainly  an  aid  to  efficacy.  The 
beauty  of  the  finished  work  depends  upon  the 
smoothness  given  the  wood  by  this  rubbing. 

But  veneered  wood  must  not  be  thus  rubbed,  for 
it  would  soften  the  glue,  nor  does  veneer  aeed  it,  for 

[284] 


REPAIRING  AND   POLISHING  AT  HOME 

the  wood  chosen  for  veneer  is  usually  very  smooth 
and  close-grained.  Wood  which  has  been  well 
cared  for  and  is  unmarred  under  the  old  polish  does 
not  need  this  preliminary  work  to  be  long  continued, 
for  the  effect  of  the  pumice-stone  and  oil  of  years 
ago  has  not  been  lost. 

Should  a  soft  place  appear  where  some  inferior 
piece  of  wood  has  been  used,  apply  a  coat  of  glue 
and  water  and  leave  until  dry.  This  will  harden 
the  grain  of  the  wood. 

Crevices  should  be  filled  with  a  cement  of  beeswax 
and  resin  and  vermilion,  heated  together,  and  run 
into  the  hole  with  a  warm  chisel.  Should  a  depres- 
sion be  found  in  an  otherwise  smooth  surface,  as  is 
frequently  the  case  at  the  centre  of  a  knotty  and  gor- 
geous part  of  the  mahogany,  do  not  try  the  water  and 
blotter  method,  for,  the  wood  not  having  been 
crushed,  it  will  not  rise.  But,  with  a  brush,  dip  into 
the  bottle  of  polish,  described  below,  and  generously 
cover  this  spot.  As  often  as  this  hardens  drop  more 
until  the  depression  is  built  up  to  the  proper  level. 
When  perfectly  hard  it  can  be  rubbed  smooth  with 
the  rest  of  the  surface. 

We  have  always  found  sandpaper,  even  of  the 
finest  quality,  a  scratchy  and  poor  substitute  for 
pumice  and  oil  and  energy. 

[285] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

After  the  surface  feels  smooth  and  satiny,  wipe 
the  wood  dry  and  clean,  and  place  it  in  a  well- 
lighted  room  where  there  will  be  no  dust.  It  is  well 
to  do  the  work  in  a  room  where  tools  and  bottles 
shall  remain  undisturbed. 

Now,  for  the  actual  polishing,  have  a  wide- 
mouthed  quart  bottle  for  the  necessary  mixture. 
There  is  some  divergence  among  workers  as  to  this, 
but  here  is  a  mixture  that  we  have  found  admirable : 
One  pint  of  grain  alcohol;  four  ounces  of  dry  shel- 
lac of  a  light  color,  crushed  small;  and  half  an 
ounce  each  of  gum  arabic  and  gum  sandarac,  pow- 
dered fine.  This  bottle  must  stand  on  a  sunny 
window-sill,  or  on  a  warm  register,  or  in  a  hot  sand 
bath,  but  never  near  fire,  for  three  days;  and  with 
sundry  shakings  it  will  turn  into  a  thick  and  rather 
clear  liquid  with  no  sediment  or  undissolved  matter. 
The  sandarac  sometimes  settles,  but  still  has  a  slight 
waterproofing  influence  in  the  mixture. 

Now  to  begin-  In  your  hand  have  an  inch-thick, 
four-inch  square,  of  folded  flannel,  soft  and  fine.  It 
must  be  covered  with  a  piece  of  old  linen  which  is 
not  linty.  Open  the  square  and  pour  in  from  the 
bottle  a  tablespoonful  or  less.  Gather  the  corners 
and  edges  into  the  hand  so  that  a  round,  plump  cush- 
ion, with  the  polish  in  the  heart  of  it,  protrudes,  cov- 

[286] 


REPAIRING  AND   POLISHING  AT   HOME 

ered  with  the  fine  linen.  Touch  this  linen  with  one 
slight  dab  of  linseed  oil  and  take  a  cautious  light 
stroke  down  the  grain  of  the  wood  toward  the  light 
from  the  window.  Very  slowly,  and  without  ever 
resting  this  dauber  on  the  wood,  a  back-and-forth 
movement  must  be  made.  The  polish  begins  to  ap- 
pear. The  wood  glows.  The  fire  of  its  color  gleams. 
Happiness  steals  over  you.  You  return  to  the  bottle 
for  more.  As  skill  grows  you  can  sail  gayly  back  and 
forth  and  by  many  parallel  long  strokes  you  will 
cover  the  small  surface  you  are  first  attempting.  For 
you  will  be  wise,  and  not  begin  with  the  top  of  the 
dining-table,  but  take  a  leg  or,  better  still,  a  candle- 
stand  or  a  dressing-glass  frame. 

After  you  feel  master  of  the  back-and-forth  stroke, 
try  a  circular  movement,  which  seems  to  surface 
things  over  and  make  progress.  Return  to  the  bottle 
for  more  liquid  as  needed,  and  renew  the  linen 
should  it  wear  through,  for  the  wool  fibre  will  stick 
to  the  wood  and  destroy  your  surface.  A  very  oc- 
casional dab  of  oil  will  be  necessary  on  the  linen. 

One  beauty  of  French  polishing  is  that  it  is  dry  at 
once.  There  is  no  waiting  to  see  if  it  is  going  to 
harden  or  set. 

Keep  on  until  the  quality  of  the  polish  is  deep  and 
resplendent,  until  it  suits  taste  and  fancy,  and  until 

[269] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

you  are  sure  you  have  never  seen  a  finer  finish  any- 
where, in  friend's  or  rival's  home  or  in  dealer's  shop. 
Your  arms  will  be  weary  and  your  hands  very  sticky 
by  this  time;  but  rinse  them  in  alcohol  and  save  the 
rinsing  in  a  bottle,  for  you  may  use  it  later. 

Next  morning  it  is  a  little  appalling  to  see  how 
much  the  fine  polish  has  gone  in  over  night.  But 
this  is  not  very  discouraging,  for  it  has  really  gone  in 
and  has  not  evaporated.  Instead  of  going  on  at 
once  with  more  polish,  take  the  old  pumice-stone  and 
oil  rubber  and  rub  the  surface  down  to  dullness ;  with 
a  less  vigorous  stroke,  however,  than  on  the  bare 
wood.  Wipe  clean,  and  again  take  the  linen-cov- 
ered, soft,  woolen  rubber  (which  will  keep  for  many 
days  without  hardening  if  dropped  in  a  covered  can 
when  not  in  use),  and  begin  to  put  more  polish  on. 
Were  you  pleased  yesterday?  You  will  be  more 
than  that  to-day.  How  the  polish  improves  is  a 
constant  delight.  The  beauty,  and  the  possibilities 
of  beauty,  in  mahogany  grow  upon  you,  and  you  see 
in  fancy  the  shabby  old  desk  and  the  Empire  work- 
table  undergoing  this  very  metamorphosis  within  the 
week.  Put  on  all  the  polish  that  the  wood  requires ; 
be  sure  to  put  on  enough;  and  leave  it  again  over 
night. 

In  the  morning  comes  the  last  and  most  delicate 

[290] 


REPAIRING  AND   POLISHING  AT   HOME 

of  the  operations.  The  work  can  be  left  as  it  is  so  far 
as  durability  is  concerned,  but  another  hue  to  the 
rainbow  can  be  added  by  what  is  called  spiriting  off. 

Take  a  roll  or  piece  of  soft  linen,  such  as  a  fine  but 
worn-out  handkerchief.  Tear  off  hems  and  mono- 
grams or  fold  them  in,  to  insure  softness.  Take  the 
alcohol  you  used  for  rinsing  your  fingers,  or  put  a 
few  drops  from  the  polish  bottle  into  fresh  alcohol. 
Moisten  your  soft  roll  of  linen  in  this  and  skim  over 
the  surface  of  your  work  with  it.  The  end  to  be  ac- 
complished is  to  run  the  polish  together  into  a  hard 
and  resisting  surface.  This  moist  rag  will  do  won- 
derful things  if  a  little  skill  is  acquired  in  its  use,  but 
one  lingering  smear  of  it  will  lift  the  polish  from  the 
wood  and  leave  the  work  of  days  a  ruin,  only  to  be 
scraped  away. 

French  polishing  leaves  a  brilliant  deep  polish  on 
the  wood,  which  a  blow  will  not  turn  into  a  yellow 
mark,  with  fractures,  as  is  the  case  with  varnished 
wood,  and  it  is  as  good  and  strong  as  ingenuity  has 
invented.  Should  a  duller  surface  be  desired;  and 
it  is  more  effective  on  sombre  old  chests  of  drawers 
and  many  heavy  old  pieces ;  rub  the  finished  surface 
very  gently,  and  very  little,  with  flannel  and  pumice- 
stone  and  oil.  It  is  the  work  of  a  few  moments  to 
change  from  brightness  to  dullness,  yet  we  have 

[291] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

known  bills  to  be  sent  with  six  dollars'  extra  charge 
for  this  desired  dull  finish. 

There  are  many  "superstitions"  to  be  followed,  as 
coffee  drinkers  call  such  ceremonies  as  putting  sugar 
in  the  cup  first  and  coffee  on  top. 

Never  use  the  polish  bottle  on  a  dull  or  humid 
day.  It  will  be  contrary  and  sticky.  Scrape  and 
rub  with  oil  and  pumice  on  the  dull  days.  You 
must  have  bright  skies  for  good  polishing. 

There  are  many  more  points  which  emergencies 
will  teach.  If  a  bubbly  ugly  smear  appears,  showing 
where  the  polish  has  stuck  to  the  rubber  instead  of  to 
the  wood,  stop  all  work  on  that  part  for  the  day. 
Next  day,  when  it  is  hard,  rub  with  pumice-stone 
and  oil  and  see  if  you  can  go  on  with  the  polish.  If 
it  is  not  a  bad  case  this  can  be  done.  If  it  has  been 
a  case  of  leaving  the  rubber  on  the  wood  while  you 
went  downstairs,  you  had  better  betake  yourself  to 
the  knife  and  scrape  clean  for  a  new  beginning. 

When  flutings,  or  receding  angles,  or  carvings 
which  cannot  be  reached  by  the  rounding  surface  of 
the  polisher  are  met  with,  a  slim  and  slender  brush 
of  fine  hair  should  be  dipped  in  the  bottle  and  the 
liquid  lined  into  these  difficult  places;  then  the  pad 
may  be  resumed  for  the  polishing  of  the  surfaces 
around  these  same  parts. 

[292] 


REPAIRING  AND   POLISHING  AT   HOME 

Now  and  then  a  stain  is  absolutely  necessary, 
where  a  patch  is  to  be  made  like  the  original.  Never 
use  a  colored  varnish  or  a  commercial  stain,  but  dye 
the  bare  wood  with  a  dye  made  of  bismuth  brown 
and  alcohol,  to  which  a  granule  of  aniline  red  is 
added. 

A  patch  around  a  keyhole,  or  an  inset  of  new 
and  light-colored  mahogany,  may  be  darkened  by 
wiping  over  with  lye  water  and  rinsing  off. 

The  continued  application  of  lye  or  caustic  soda 
in  any  form  causes  mahogany  to  darken  into  pur- 
plish hues.  Many  restorations  come  home  from 
workshops  of  high  repute  with  this  queer  dull  purple 
gleaming  from  the  wood  as  the  result  of  an  easy  way 
of  removing  the  old  varnish  with  lye.  Time  and 
again  have  the  uninspired  restorers  of  old  furniture 
pooh-poohed  the  folly  of  scraping  wood  and  advo- 
cated the  lye-can.  With  lye,  the  old  varnish  or 
polish  comes  off  in  one-eighth  of  the  time  needed  by 
scraping,  but  the  fire  of  the  wood  disappears  too,  and 
there  comes  in  its  stead  the  ugly  purple  which  has 
little  resemblance  to  the  rich  color  of  good  wood  well 
treated. 

Inkstains  so  frequently  sink  into  the  very  fibre  of 
the  wood  that  it  is  well  worth  knowing  that,  if  cov- 
ered with  a  drop  of  water  into  which  one  or  two  crys- 

[293] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

tals  of  oxalic  acid  are  then  pushed,  the  ink  will  dis- 
appear. But  watch  the  operation,  and  wipe  away 
the  acid  as  soon  as  the  cleansing  is  complete.  Re- 
member, too,  that  oxalic  acid  is  poison. 

For  the  many  things,  little  and  big,  that  may  be 
done  at  home,  it  is  well  to  set  aside  a  small  room  as 
a  home  workshop.  We  set  apart  such  a  room,  away 
from  the  main  part  of  the  house,  and  gilding,  uphol- 
stering, cabinet-making,  polishing  and  general  re- 
pairing are  carried  on  with  a  very  simple  array  of 
tools  in  which  hatchet  and  tack-hammer  and  kitchen 
knife  play  star  parts. 

However,  we  have  one  useful  machine.  It  is 
made  from  an  old  sewing-machine,  so  antiquated  as 
to  have  no  friend  or  owner.  It  is  now  a  brass  pol- 
isher! Polishing  andirons  and  candlesticks  and 
pewter  mugs  and  pewter  platters  is  always  looked 
upon  as  a  task  out  of  usual  household  lines.  Silver 
is  polished  without  a  murmur,  but  brass  and  pewter 
are  looked  upon  with  no  eye  of  favor  in  the  kitchen. 
And  so,  we  had  to  present  the  polishing  of  brass  and 
pewter  as  an  easy  task;  hence  the  sewing-machine, 
made  over  with  a  felt  burnishing  wheel  by  a  village 
artisan.  No  longer,  now,  is  burnishing  a  task,  and 
the  machine  was  not  difficult  of  construction.  The 
arm  was  knocked  off,  and  the  felt-covered  wooden 

[294] 


REPAIRING  AND   POLISHING  AT   HOME 

wheel  was  attached.  In  buffing,  putz  or  brass  polish 
is  used. 

It  is  always  pleasant  to  know  a  simple  method  by 
which  some  serious-seeming  difficulty  may  be  over- 
come. An  old  banister-back  chair,  which  antedates 
the  days  of  Chippendale,  with  generous  rush  seat, 
and  a  front  rung  with  a  huge  knob  in  the  middle,  was 
preliminarily  cleaned  of  its  green  paint ;  then,  its  dull 
black  was  restored  by  first  applying  logwood  boiled 
in  water,  and,  when  this  was  dry,  by  brushing  over 
with  vinegar  in  which  rusty  nails  had  been  left  for 
several  hours.  The  chair  had  a  dirty  mussy  brown 
color  when  the  work  was  done,  but  in  a  few  minutes 
the  color  became  ebony-like,  and  was  a  great  success. 
The  advantage  of  this,  over  painting  it  black,  is  that 
the  very  fibre  of  the  wood  is  dyed,  and  the  chair  does 
not,  therefore,  wear  white  on  the  arms  and  edges. 

It  is  always  well  to  have  on  hand  a  sheet  of  ma- 
hogany veneer,  which  can  be  purchased  at  some  wood 
warehouse  where  you  have  spied  the  sign  of  "Ven- 
eer" from  passing  trolley  or  from  high-level  bridge. 
Scissors  will  clip  a  piece  of  harmonizing  streak  and 
grain  for  some  spot  where  it  is  needed;  and  with  a 
clean  surface,  freshly-made  glue  and  a  heavy  weight, 
or,  still  better,  a  wooden  clamp,  you  can  easily  do 
the  work  of  mending  veneer.  Or  you  may  relay 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

loose  veneer  by  cleaning  it,  using  fresh  glue,  and  re- 
placing it  under  pressure.  The  glue  should  be  of 
fine  quality;  preferably,  of  German  make. 

A  blister  in  old  veneer  may  be  laid  by  slitting  it  in 
the  middle  and  pouring  in  some  glue,  working  it 
thoroughly  under  every  part  of  the  blister,  pressing 
out  all  that  you  can,  and  then  laying  a  very  heavy 
weight  on  it. 

Time  enters  into  all  these  things,  and  the  beginner 
is  apt  to  become  impatient  while  waiting  for  glue  to 
harden  and  veneer  to  adhere. 

Once  learn  the  art  of  putting  in  rush  seats  in 
chairs — it  may  easily  be  learned  from  some  worker 
of  the  old  school — and  you  are  not  only  ready  to  re- 
pair a  rush  seat  that  has  become  broken  and  ragged 
by  use,  but  you  need  never  hesitate  about  acquiring 
some  fine  old  chair,  with  broken  bottom,  when  oppor- 
tunity offers,  although  you  would  probably  let  the 
prize  pass  if  you  had  not  learned  this  art. 

There  are  many  things  which  the  collector  himself 
may  do.  You  may  put  on  missing  handles  of  brass 
or  glass — first  waiting  until,  in  some  junk-shop  or 
odd  corner,  you  find  the  handle  of  precisely  the  pro- 
per period.  You  may  do  a  myriad  of  things  with 
broken  furniture,  thereby  acquiring  personal  knowl- 
edge of  the  admirable  old-time  ways,  and,  especially 

[296] 


REPAIRING  AND   POLISHING  AT   HOME 

if  you  live  at  some  distance  from  a  city,  saving  your- 
self endless  trouble  in  shipping  articles  of  furniture 
back  and  forth.  Beginning  by  doing  the  work  from 
motives  of  economy  or  convenience,  you  will  soon 
acquire  a  real  love  for  it. 


CHAPTER  XV 

IN  THE  DINING-ROOM 

IN  the  ancient  Pennsylvania  Bethlehem,  beside  the 
Lehigh,  a  town  intimately  connected  with  the 
romance  and  tragedy  of  early  settlement,  there 
still  stand  houses  built  by  Moravians  of  the  olden 
time.  And  on  Easter  morning,  long  before  dawn 
and  preceding  the  sunrise  service,  a  score  of  trom- 
bone players  wake  the  sleeping  people,  playing  first 
up  in  the  white-pillared  dome  of  the  old  Moravian 
church,  and  then  at  point  after  point  throughout  the 
town — in  front  of  the  building  in  which  Lafayette 
lay  wounded  and  where  Washington  visited  him, 
and  beside  the  ancient  structure  where  Pulaski  was 
presented  with  a  banner  by  the  Moravian  maidens, 
and  at  many  another  spot. 

A  town,  this,  in  which  a  lover  of  old  furniture 
would  especially  like  to  obtain  some  examples  of  the 
old;  but  our  stay  there  was  but  during  Easter  Day. 

[298] 


IN  THE  DINING-ROOM 

But  mark,  again,  how  Providence  watches  over 
collectors!  In  an  aggressively  modern  New  Jersey 
town,  a  year  or  so  afterward,  a  friend  said : 

"I  wonder  if  you  want  to  buy  a  piece  of  old  fur- 
niture— a  corner-cupboard.  A  family  have  moved 
back  to  their  old  home,  leaving  their  furniture  to  be 
sold.  Most  of  it  was  modern  and  sold  readily.  All 
that  Js  left  is  their  corner-cupboard,  and  it  Js  too  old 
for  anybody's  taste  here.  They  want  to  sell  it  for 
five  dollars.  They  brought  it  when  they  came  here 
from  their  old  home,  Bethlehem." 

And  that  is  how  it  comes  that  this  memento  of  the 
ancient  Pennsylvania  town  stands  in  a  corner  of  our 
dining-room — and  for  only  five  dollars  and  freight! 

An  adequate,  capacious,  good-looking  old  cup- 
board it  is,  made  to  lift  apart  in  two  pieces,  as  was 
customary  in  making  tall  articles  of  furniture.  The 
upper  half  is  fronted  with  a  swinging  glass  door,  and 
the  lower  half  with  swinging  doors  of  wood.  By  a 
strange  perverseness,  the  cupboard  had  been  given  a 
coat  of  red  varnish  stain,  but  this  was  easily  taken 
off  by  scraping. 

In  this  corner-cupboard,  and  in  a  cabinet  on  an 
adjoining  wall,  there  are  china  and  glass  and  silver, 
a  little  Lowestoft,  a  little  Wedgwood,  a  little  old 
Sevres,  a  huge  old  English  soup  tureen,  a  huge  blue 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

platter,  with  bowls  and  pitchers  and  cups  and 
plates. 

It  seems  a  contradiction;  but  most  old  American 
china  was  of  English  make.  It  was  a  comparatively 
advanced  period  before  there  was  much  made  on  this 
side  of  the  ocean,  and  even  the  greater  portion  of 
those  old  dishes  which  show  pictures  of  American 
scenery  were  made  in  Staffordshire. 

The  study  of  china  is  one  all  by  itself,  requiring 
long  and  patient  research  and  application ;  and  after 
one  has  examined  the  work  of  the  great  potteries  of 
the  world  and  supplemented  this  by  a  study  of  the 
examples  in  museums,  there  comes  a  wide  humble- 
ness of  judgment,  so  difficult,  often,  is  differentia- 
tion of  the  various  makes  because  the  different  per- 
iods and  factories  so  frequently  overlap  and  resemble 
one  another  in  style  and  appearance.  As  a  rule,  it 
is  those  who  have  acquired  but  a  surface  knowledge 
who  are  able  to  be  most  offhandedly  positive  as  to 
age  and  make. 

But  there  is  much  that  may  positively  be  learned. 
There  are  marks  and  signs  and  surfaces  to  consider. 
There  are  times  when  one  may  feel  certainty.  As, 
when  a  friend  shows  some  china,  insisting  and  be- 
lieving (such  is  often  the  effect  of  mistaken  family 
tradition)  that  it  is  "over  two  hundred  and  fifty 


IN  THE  DINING-ROOM 

years  old,"  it  may  perhaps  be  of  a  kind  that  you 
know  was  not  made  until  the  early  part  of  the  nine- 
teenth century. 

The  prices  of  china  vary,  not  alone  from  age,  or 
from  beauty  of  design  or  color,  but  also  from  rarity. 
As  to  this,  there  is  a  great  arbitrariness  of  assumed 
value.  At  a  sale,  a  blue  plate  of  fair  appearance, 
with  an  old  Albany  picture  upon  it,  was  about  to  be 
knocked  down  to  us  for  fifty  cents,  when  two  men, 
who  at  that  moment  happened  to  notice  it,  eagerly 
joined  the  bidding,  and  one  of  them  finally  obtained 
it  for  twenty-eight  dollars.  This  was  solely  because 
it  was  one  of  an  historical  series,  now  hard  to  find. 

Pennsylvania  had  quite  a  share  in  the  outfitting  of 
our  old  dining-room;  although  it  might  more  natu- 
rally have  been  New  York  from  the  number  of  dis- 
tinguished men  of  that  State  who,  like  Washington 
Irving,  have  in  past  generations  dined  within  it ! 

It  was  from  Pennsylvania  that  even  the  dining- 
table  came ;  a  table  of  fine  Sheraton  design,  with  del- 
icately fluted  legs.  It  is  of  mahogany,  and  is  made 
in  two  pieces,  each  semi-circular  in  shape,  with  the 
leaves  dropping  against  each  other  in  the  middle. 
When  the  leaves  are  down  the  table  is  a  circle;  but 
it  may,  if  desired,  be  used  as  two  separate  side-tables, 
each  standing  against  the  wall  with  curved  front. 

[303] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

It  was  obtained  direct  from  a  family,  themselves 
lovers  of  the  antique,  who  had  long  possessed  it,  and 
is  one  of  our  treasures  in  appearance.  It  cost  us 
twenty-four  dollars;  not  a  special  "bargain,"  and 
yet  much  less  than  we  should  have  had  to  pay  for  a 
well-made  modern  table  of  similar  size. 

The  buyer  of  the  antique  is  liable  to  lose  sight  of 
the  essential  dearness  or  cheapness  of  a  thing.  He 
is  liable  to  compare  prices,  not  with  ordinary  prices 
of  to-day,  but  with  what  he  paid  for  special  "finds." 
The  collector  who  thinks  a  beautiful  old  mahogany 
table,  in  good  condition,  dear  at  twenty  dollars,  for- 
gets that  for  a  modern  table,  of  some  inferior  wood, 
he  would  expect  to  pay  at  least  over  forty.  The  col- 
lector who  thinks  a  superb  old  chair  dear  at  five  dol- 
lars, forgets  that  in  a  modern  shop,  for  what  he 
would  consider  a  common  chair,  he  would  be  asked 
at  the  very  least  eight  or  twelve.  Often,  as  we  have 
found  in  our  own  experience,  charming  old  pieces 
are  offered  at  delightfully  low  prices — but  one  must 
not  expect  to  furnish  his  entire  house  at  such  prices ! 

From  to-day's  paper  let  us  quote,  from  advertise- 
ments of  modern  furniture,  probably  all  machine- 
made,  a  few  prices  that  are  expected  to  seem  highly 
attractive  to  purchasers.  Hall  clocks,  in  the  style 
we  call  "grandfather's,"  with  mahogany  cases,  are 

.[304] 


IN  THE  DINING-ROOM 

two  hundred  and  sixty-three  to  three  hundred  and 
ninety-six  dollars,  and  with  cherry  and  oak  cases 
ninety-eight  dollars  and  upward.  A  mahogany  arm- 
chair, a  "veritable  gem  set  with  a  superb  silk  damask 
seat  in  choice  colorings,"  is  nineteen  dollars.  An 
"aristocratic,  quarter-sawed  oak  dresser"  is  offered 
for  forty-eight  dollars.  A  chiffonier  (what  a  word 
to  use,  when  we  have  the  good  old  "chest  of  draw- 
ers," or,  if  French  be  preferred,  "bureau" — for 
"chiffonier"  means  a  rag-picker  or  a  receptacle  for 
rags,  or,  when  applied  to  furniture,  should  be  used, 
as  with  the  French  themselves,  in  the  cognate  sense 
of  describing  a  work-box  for  small  pieces) — well,  a 
chiffonier  is  offered  for  thirty-seven  dollars.  When 
you  pick  up  a  fine  old-time  chest  of  drawers  for  ten 
dollars  and  pay  the  repairer  and  polisher  another  ten, 
you  have  a  piece  incomparably  beyond  this.. 

And  yet,  as  we  read  the  advertisements  farther, 
we  see  that  this  new  century  has  something  distinc- 
tively and  strikingly  its  own  to  offer!  For  sixty- 
two  dollars  and  a  half  you  may  have,  combined  in 
one  single  piece  of  furniture,  "a  smart  mirror,  a 
handsome  tall  clock,  hooks  for  your  hat,  and  a  rest- 
ful seat!" 

With  this,  we  may  well  return  to  the  dining-room. 
An  important  part  of  its  lighting  is  a  reminder, 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

again,  of  Pennsylvania,  for  around  the  walls  are 
placed  half  a  dozen  brass  candelabra  which  we  found 
thrown  away  under  the  stairs  of  a  little  old  Quaker 
meeting-house,  in  that  State.  Each  of  the  candel- 
abra holds  a  single  candle.  Only  the  curving  pieces 
of  brass,  with  the  candle  holders,  could  be  found,  but 
we  were  able  to  supply,  in  mounting  them,  small 
Empire  torches,  of  metal,  with  formal  ribbons,  in 
the  same  metal,  at  either  side.  The  candles  are 
placed  at  the  same  height  as  those  upon  the 
mantel,  and  with  these,  and  a  few  candles  upon 
the  side  table,  the  room  is  amply  and  softly 
lighted. 

The  prevailing  color  is  yellow,  but  there  is  also 
much  of  blue  in  the  room.  The  wall  paper  is  yellow, 
and  the  large  rug  in  the  centre  of  the  room  is  blue, 
with  a  braided  hearth  rug  of  blue  and  white  in  front 
of  the  fireplace.  Between  this  room  and  the  next 
hang  woven  curtains  which  may  be  drawn  together, 
to  separate  the  rooms,  when  it  is  not  desired  to  draw 
the  sliding  doors.  There  are  two  sets  of  these  curtains, 
those  in  the  dining-room  being  blue.  These  blue  cur- 
tains are  a  pair  of  coverlets,  of  old-time  design,  of 
white  linen  and  indigo  blue  wool,  hand  woven  in 
beautiful  and  intricate  pattern,  purchased  from  a 
Connecticut  housewife  who  wanted  but  three  dollars 

[306] 


IN  THE  DINING-ROOM 

for  them.  And  only  those  who  know  such  coverlets 
know  what  tedious  and  lengthy  work  they  represent. 
In  their  present  position  they  look  not  in  the  least 
like  coverlets,  but  as  if  they  had  always  been  hang- 
ings. 

No  provision  having  been  made,  by  the  builder  of 
this  house,  for  curtain  rods  at  these  doors,  the  want 
was  filled  with  lengths  of  gas  pipe.  They  make  ad- 
mirable rods,  in  appearance  and  serviceableness,  and 
are  painted  white  and  sunk  in  the  door  frames. 

In  a  window-recess  is  a  little  kettle-stand  whose 
acquisition  was  of  droll  unexpectedness.  It  is 
square-topped,  and  has  a  raised  rim  and  snake  feet, 
and  its  appearance  shows  it  to  be  of  about  1775.  It 
belonged  to  a  neighbor  who  traced  its  possession 
back  ancestrally  into  the  eighteenth  century.  He 
was  a  man  who  could  never  think  of  such  a  thing  as 
selling  a  household  belonging;  but  he  coveted  a  cer- 
tain unpedigreed  white  hen,  and  for  the  possession 
of  that  fowl,  termed  by  him  a  "Brammy,"  he  gladly 
bartered  this  table. 

On  the  mantel  there  is  a  yellow  brass  jar,  besides 
the  brass  candlesticks,  and  behind  them,  in  a  digni- 
fied line,  stand  on  edge  a  row  of  large  old  plates,  a 
set  of  half  a  dozen,  in  a  deep  blue. 

Within  the  fireplace  is  a  pair  of  old  brass  and- 

[307] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

irons.  These  we  found,  several  years  ago,  in  the 
granary  of  a  tumble-down,  gambrel-roofed  old 
house,  on  a  road  in  New  York  near  the  Connecticut 
line.  When  the  first  fire  was  blazing  on  them,  out 
came  angry  wasps  who  had  built  mud  cells  in  the 
concealed  hollows  of  the  pillars,  giving  quite  a 
Whittier-like  effect  of  being  "hissing  hot"  between 
"the  andirons'  straggling  feet." 

Beside  the  fireplace  is  a  pair  of  bellows,  brass  stud- 
ded, picked  up  on  a  Naples  street  for  half  a  lira,  ten 
cents. 

There  is  a  trivet,  too.  There  was  a  time  when  we 
were  not  quite  sure  of  the  meaning  of  the  word,  and 
when  asked,  "Do  you  have  trivets  in  your  part  of 
the  country?"  we  could  almost  have  answered,  as 
did  the  woman  of  the  Tennessee  Mountains  when 
asked  by  the  missionary  if  there  were  many  Presby- 
terians thereabouts,  that  we  did  not  know  them  by 
that  name,  but  that  the  inquirer  might  look  over  the 
skins  nailed  on  the  barn  door. 

But  we  soon  learned  what  a  trivet  is,  and  we  have 
one,  a  simple  three-legged  fireside  crane;  and  when 
we  read  in  Lamb,  as  we  chanced  to  shortly  after 
acquiring  it,  of  the  man  who  assisted  at  the  cook- 
ing by  removing  the  trivet  from  the  fire,  we  knew 
just  what  was  meant.  There  is  some  latitude  in 


IN  THE  DINING-ROOM 

shape,  but  the  general  purpose  is  always  the  same — 
and  a  very  helpful  purpose  it  is. 

Upon  the  trivet  hangs  the  old  brass  kettle,  flattish 
and  rounding  and  ebony-handled,  that  was  among 
the  very  earliest  of  our  acquisitions. 

In  telling  of  what  is  in  these  rooms  it  is  only  that 
the  experiences  may  arouse  suggestions;  it  is  not  in 
the  least  as  if  the  methods  were  offered  as  models.  If 
we  were  writing  anything  didactic,  it  would  only  be 
some  such  advice  as  not  to  overcrowd  your  home 
with  articles  as  if  it  were  a  museum;  not  to  lose  ef- 
fectiveness of  appearance  and  comfort  by  overfilling 
your  rooms  and  cabinets  and  mantelpieces.  It  is 
your  own  home,  and  the  principal  object  is  to  make 
the  home  attractive  and  comfortable. 

A  tea-table,  quaintly  square  topped  and  square 
fronted,  is  in  one  wall  space  beside  the  fire,  and  upon 
it  stands,  against  the  wall,  one  of  the  oval  wooden 
tea-boards.  We  like  the  fine  old  name,  tea-board, 
rather  than  its  substitute,  tea-tray,  which  somehow 
suggests  something  not  at  all  like  it;  if  it  is  only  a 
tray  call  it  a  tray,  but  we  ought  not  to  take  away 
from  the  dignity  of  the  really  charming  old  articles. 
The  great  Wedgwood  loved  them.  In  his  show- 
rooms, he  displayed  his  exquisite  tea-sets  upon  ma- 
hogany tea-boards. 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

Against  one  of  the  walls  stands  a  side-table,  of 
San  Domingo  mahogany,  of  really  noble  fire  and 
color.  And,  with  the  chairs,  the  room  seems  to  have 
enough  in  it,  save  only  for  the  lack  of  the  missing 
sideboard. 

The  question  of  what  pictures  to  hang  in  a  dining- 
room  is  an  important  one.  It  is  a  room  in  which 
people  spend  a  considerable  portion  of  their  time  and 
in  which  none  but  pleasurable  and  comfortable 
thoughts  should  be  evoked.  For  our  own  part,  we 
have  no  love  for  pictured  quail  hanging  by  their  toes, 
neither  do  varnished  tarpon  or  fuzzy  caribou  seem 
agreeable  dinner  companions.  Conversation  and 
thoughts,  at  dinner,  are  supposed  to  range  through  a 
wide  and  agreeable  field,  and  there  is  no  reason  why 
pictures  should  not  be  equally  agreeable. 

And  so,  we  hung  a  few  etchings  of  subjects  which 
strike  no  jarring  note,  and  in  one  corner  is  a  large 
pastel,  which,  as  if  the  artist  knew  that  we  needed  a 
picture  distinctly  blue,  has  that  color  in  domination. 

The  chairs  for  a  dining-room  ought,  of  course,  to 
be  of  one  set,  and  often  do  we  think  with  envy  of  the 
Sheratons  found  by  our  friend  in  Delaware.  Still, 
our  own  chairs  are  very  satisfactory — six  chairs  and 
two  armchairs,  in  dark  leather — and  they  have  an 
unusual  history. 


IN  THE  DINING-ROOM 

They  were  purchased,  far  back  in  the  fifties,  by 
those  from  whom  we  inherited  them.  At  the  time 
of  their  purchase  the  prevailing  styles  were  grievous 
mid- Victorian. 

But  the  buyers  did  not  want  mid- Victorian,  and 
they  described  what  it  was  they  sought. 

"But  they  don't  make  that  kind  nowadays !"  pro- 
tested the  dealer,  the  proprietor  of  one  of  the  largest 
furniture  shops  of  the  Middle  West. 

"Then  we  '11  wait  till  they  do,"  was  the  reply. 

It  was  quite  a  time  afterward,  so  the  story  was 
long  ago  told  us,  that  the  dealer  one  day  sent  word  to 
them  that  he  had  a  set  which  they  would  surely  like. 

They  went,  and  he  showed  them  these.  They 
were  of  good  wood,  of  the  form  known  as  "steeple- 
back,"  high  and  narrow,  with  an  oval,  upholstered 
panel  and  a  rather  pointed  top,  and  of  comfortable 
and  dignified  mien,  as  befits  the  chairs  of  a  dining- 
room. 

"Yes;  those  will  do  very  well;"  and  they  were  at 
once  purchased.  They  looked  new;  there  was  no 
thought  of  their  being  anything  else ;  there  was  noth- 
ing said  as  to  being  old  or  new,  but  the  shop  was  one 
that  handled  new  goods  only. 

Not  till  forty  years  afterward  did  the  secret  come 
out,  and  then  it  came  through  a  reupholstering.  And 

[315] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

the  secret  was,  that  these  fine  strong  chairs  had  all 
been  old  at  the  time  of  their  sale  in  the  fifties! 
Here  and  there  were  telltale  shreds  and  portents,  un- 
questionably pointing  out  the  fact  that  they  were,  as 
their  shape  had  all  along  implied,  of  early  in  the 
century ! 


[SHI 


CHAPTER  XVI 

IN   THE   ROOM   OF   THE   GREAT   FIREPLACE 


SHALL  I  not  take  mine  ease  in  mine  inn?"  de- 
mands FalstafF,  voicing  thus  a  widely  human 
appeal  for  comfort.     And  in  this  once-while 
inn  there  is  one  room  peculiarly  fitted  either  for  tak- 
ing ease  or  for  working.     It  is  that  room  of  spacious 
coziness,  to  which  distinction  is  given  by  the  eight- 
foot  fireplace. 

Other  rooms  of  the  inn  have  loftier  ceilings,  and 
finely  modeled  cornicing,  and  proportions  that  are  a 
dignified  delight  to  the  eye.  But  always  there  is  the 
desire  for  the  most  cozy  room  for  work  or  for  relaxa- 
tion. Why,  even  the  stately  palaces  have  their  cozy 
quarters!  At  Versailles,  the  visitor  sees  a  succes- 
sion of  mighty  rooms — and  is  then  pleased  with  the 
snug  little  corner  where  Marie  Antoinette  led  her  in- 
timate life.  We  are  all  human,  whether  monarchs 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

or  Americans,  and  share  the  universal  human  love 
for  coziness.  And  so,  shall  we  not  take  our  ease,  or 
our  work,  in  this  low-ceilinged  room  of  the  inn! 
FalstafI  loved  to  take  his  ease,  so  the  picture  of  com- 
fort is  given  us,  in  front  of  a  sea-coal  fire ;  but  surely 
he  would  have  loved  a  great  fire  of  wood  leaping  and 
roaring  in  such  a  fireplace  as  this. 

The  rising  sun  comes  in  at  one  side  of  the  room 
and  the  setting  sun  at  the  other.  From  the  win- 
dows, there  is  first  the  grass,  and  then  the  light  lines 
of  stone  walls,  and  then  the  trees  and  the  mounting 
hills;  and,  inside  the  room,  there  is  first  a  dull  soft 
green  paper,  and  then  the  light  lines  of  the  old 
grooved  chair-rail,  and,  rising  above  this,  a  green 
paper  covered  with  trees  of  a  green  that  is  darker. 
At  the  windows  are  curtains  of  white  muslin,  with  a 
pattern  of  little  white  trees ;  the  curtains  being  hung 
in  the  fashion  followed  by  Martha  Washington  at 
Mt.  Vernon,  with  a  frill  across  the  top,  and  side 
breadths  falling  straight  at  either  side  but  not  cov- 
ering the  glass,  and  all  being  within  the  casing  of  the 
window. 

Within  the  great  fireplace  are  a  pair  of  iron  fire- 
dogs,  topped  with  heavy  faceted  balls.  A  big  black 
iron  kettle  on  the  hearth  holds  some  wood,  but  a  con- 
venient reserve  supply  is  in  the  lowest  of  the  wooden- 


THE  GREAT  FIREPLACE 

doored  hutches  at  the  side  of  the  fireplace,  used  orig- 
inally for  oven  and  cupboards.  There  is  fascination 
in  the  word,  as  well  as  in  a  hutch  itself — perhaps 
owing  to  memories  of  the  hutched  treasures  that  were 
forthcoming  on  a  certain  gay  evening  spent  by  King 
Richard  and  the  Clerk  of  Copmanhurst— and  we  use 
the  upper  hutches  for  the  laying  by  of  other  things 
than  wood. 

The  erstwhile  crane  had  disappeared,  and  we 
mourned  for  it,  for  although  we  could  find  cranes 
a-plenty,  we  could  hear  of  none  of  a  size  sufficient 
for  so  ample  a  space.  But  at  length,  upon  a  scrap 
heap,  a  dozen  miles  away,  the  requisite  crane  was 
discerned !  It  was  not  eight  feet  in  length ;  we  could 
not  hope  to  find  one  that  size;  but  as  this  one  had 
filled  the  entire  space  of  a  five-foot  fireplace,  it 
would  stretch  its  single  arm  past  the  middle  of  ours. 
It  was  carried  home  in  triumph.  A  village  mason 
dug  out  a  few  bricks,  set  the  crane,  and  solidly  re- 
placed the  bricks.  And  the  crane  swung  there  as 
naturally  as  if  it  had  never  swung  anywhere  else.  A 
few  pothooks  are  upon  it,  gathered  from  this  place 
and  that;  and  a  quaint  little  black  kettle,  three-leg- 
ged, hangs  there;  and  a  splendid  great  copper  tea- 
kettle, loaned  us  by  a  descendant  of  one  of  the  early 
State  Governors.  Up  the  chimney,  black-throated 

[31*7] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

with  the  smoke  of  so  many  years,  we  like  to  hang 
flitches  of  bacon,  or  a  ham. 

There  are  iron  tongs  and  a  long  iron  poker — for 
the  fireplace  is  in  iron  with  the  exception  of  the  cop- 
per kettle  and  the  brass  nose  on  the  bellows.  About 
the  poker  there  seems  to  hang  an  old-time  charm.  A 
most  capable  implement  it  is,  three  and  a  half  feet  in 
length,  with  oddly  curved  handle  and  still  more 
oddly  two-pronged  points ;  and  in  its  coat  of  the  dull 
black  which,  for  effectiveness,  it  is  well  to  use  on 
fire-irons,  latches,  and  other  pieces  of  iron,  it  looks 
particularly  efficient,  and  as  if  it  were  a  relic  of  the 
past.  It  has  attracted  much  attention,  and  we  have 
by  more  than  one  been  told  that  it  is  "just  such  a 
poker  as  my  grandfather  used  to  have." 

But  it  is  not  old.  Neither  did  we  ever  see  an  old 
one  like  it.  We  had  no  idea  of  deceiving  anybody. 
We  began  to  use  the  poker  as  a  needful  makeshift 
till  we  should  secure  an  old  one,  and  we  still  use  it, 
so  serviceable  it  is  in  handling  the  logs,  even  though 
we  have  come  into  possession  of  a  good  old  poker  of 
equal  length  but  with  a  single  prong.  It  is  not  the 
first  time,  in  the  history  of  the  world,  that  the  unped- 
igreed  has  received  more  attention  than  the  legiti- 
mate. 

Till  now,  we  have  never  told  it;  but  this  two- 

[318] 


THE  GREAT  FIREPLACE 

pronged  poker,  this  "devil-stick"  as  it  has  naturally 
come  to  be  called,  is  but  a  discarded  net  support 
from  a  tennis  court ! 

Upon  the  brick  face  of  the  side  wall  of  the  fire- 
place is  a  bunch  of  bayonets,  each  with  a  history  or 
association.  Bound  together,  and  with  the  "butt- 
ends  up,  they  form  candle  holders.  Not  only  is  this 
utilitarian  and  effective,  but  it  follows  the  traditions 
of  the  old-time  armies,  for  many  a  tent  has  been  thus 
lighted. 

Above  the  fireplace,  in  the  two- foot  space  between 
its  top  and  the  ceiling,  runs  a  hewn  oak  beam,  and 
against  the  lower,  edge  of  this  is  now  placed  a  ten- 
inch-wide  shelf,  extending  the  entire  width  of  the 
brick  facing  of  the  fireplace.  This  relieves  a  certain 
bareness  of  aspect  which  would  otherwise  be  there, 
and  the  shelf  is  so  painted  as  to  harmonize  with  the 
color  of  the  brick,  this  end  being  attained  by  color- 
ing it  with  a  mixture  of  brown  floor  stain  and  red 
roofing  paint.  Upon  this  shelf,  and  not  too  crowded, 
is  a  line  of  pewter  and  glass. 

An  old  lady,  in  New  York,  promised  to  fetch  from 
her  old  home  in  an  inland  county,  a  tall  lidded  pew- 
ter tankard,  holding  about  two  quarts.  She  did  so, 
and  gave  it  to  us,  and  it  stands  upon  this  shelf.  It 
came  to  her  by  descent  from  the  family  of  an  ances- 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

tor  who  was  one  of  the  "Signers,"  as  those  who  put 
their  names  to  the  immortal  Declaration  are  briefly 
and  honorably  termed ;  it  is  known  to  have  been  part 
of  the  household  effects  of  about  his  period;  it  was, 
therefore,  probably  enough  used  by  the  "Signer" 
himself;  "But,"  says  the  donor,  with  anxious  femi- 
nine honesty,  "I  don't  know  for  sure  that  it  was  his, 
although  I  know  it  was  so  near  him !" 

Two  old  pewter  cups,  on  this  shelf,  came  to  us  at 
the  break-up  of  a  New  York  family.  They  are  of 
the  type  with  glass  bottoms;  and  one  would  like  to 
fancy  them  as  coming  from  those  old  "Border"  days, 
when  men  would  not  drink  in  doubtful  company,  ex- 
cept from  glass  cups  or  cups  with  glass  bottoms,  so 
needful  was  it  that  they  keep  their  companions'  dirk 
hands  every  moment  in  view ! 

There  are  a  few  other  flagons  and  mugs  and  plat- 
ters; and  there  is,  too,  a  toby.  This  came  oddly  to 
us.  An  old  Irish  woman,  who  had  long  worked  for 
us  in  New  York,  was  deeply  interested  in  our  acqui- 
sitions. She  was  an  interesting  compound  of  ignor- 
ance and  intelligence,  and  loved  to  tell  of  how,  al- 
though coming  to  this  country  in  the  last  year  of  the 
Rebellion,  she  did  not  know  that  any  war  was  in 
progress !  She  told  of  getting  a  position  in  a  board- 
ing house  on  Houston  Street  and  of  how  she  found 

[322] 


THE  GREAT  FIREPLACE 

the  boarders  all  fighting  with  one  another  on  the  first 
night  of  her  service,  after  which  fight  she  swept  up 
"three  basketfuls  of  broken  crockery!"  It  was  a 
curious  sidelight  on  manners  and  local  history. 

She  said  she  would  fetch  to  us  an  old  thing  that 
she  had  long  possessed;  "an  old  man  that  I  keep 
matches  in;  an  old  man  with  a  queer  look  in  his  eye" ; 
and  the  piece  proved  to  be  this  fine  old  toby,  of  the 
kind  described  by  Dickens  in  his  novel  of  eighteenth 
century  London,  as  being  "a  jug  of  well-browned 
clay,  fashioned  into  the  form  of  an  old  gentleman," 
the  said  gentleman,  chancing  to  be  full  of  liquor,  be- 
ing raised  "till  he  stood  on  his  head  on  the  lock- 
smith's nose." 

Beneath  the  shelf  there  is,  just  what  should  be 
there,  an  old  gun;  not  quite  an  "ole  queen7 s-arm 
fetched  back  from  Concord  busted,"  but  an  army 
piece  connected  with  a  war  and  a  battle  of  a  later 
date  than  the  Revolution. 

Here  and  there  in  the  room  are  candlesticks,  sil- 
ver or  brass,  with  candles  in  them  ready  for  use,  thus 
again  placing  utilitarianism  to  the  fore.  All  of  the 
candlesticks  have  some  especial  history  or  reason  for 
being;  and  one,  squat  and  low,  heavily  silverplated, 
with  extinguisher  attached,  came  from  one  of  the 
ships  of  the  old  navy,  of  the  days  long  before  there 

[323] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

were  electric  lights  in  the  cabins.  It  was  disposed 
of,  with  other  fittings,  at  the  breaking  up  of  the  ship, 
and  from  the  friend  who  obtained  it,  years  ago,  it 
came  directly  to  us.  It  is  beaded  with  a  circlet  of 
rope,  is  marked  with  an  anchor,  and  bears  inconspic- 
uously the  initials,  "U.S.N." 

Beside  this  great  fireplace,  which  so  broadly  dom- 
inates the  room,  and  in  relation  to  which  so  many 
things  fall  in  place,  one  may  always  sit  with  pleas- 
ure, whether  to  read  or  to  talk,  and,  when  the  autumn 
storms  blow,  "drink  deep  of  the  pleasures  of  shelter." 

There  are  numerous  old  houses  still  to  be  found, 
containing  fireplaces  nearly  as  large  as  this.  An  ac- 
quaintance in  another  State  possesses  a  house  a  cen- 
tury and  a  half  old,  in  the  wing  of  which  is  a  fire- 
place of  capacious  width.  To  make  it  impossible 
for  thieves  to  climb  down  and  steal,  he  has  had  a 
wrought  iron  grill  made  to  be  closed  every  evening 
in  front  of  the  fireplace — efficacious,  this,  but  far 
from  good  looking.  He  was  evidently  not  familiar 
with  tales  of  wonderful  escapes  in  the  old  days,  when 
political  prisoners  were  kept  for  years  in  big  rooms 
with  big  fireplaces,  or  it  would  have  occurred  to  him 
that  an  easy  way  to  make  such  a  fireplace  prohibi- 
tive to  clamberers  is  to  set  iron  bars  across,  firmly 
mortared,  a  little  up  the  chimney  and  out  of  sight. 

[324] 


THE  GREAT  FIREPLACE 

At  one  side  of  our  own  fireplace  room  is  a  cedar 
chest,  rug  covered  and  cushioned,  and  facing  it, 
across  the  room,  is  the  desk.  It  is  of  good  mahog- 
any; but,  after  all,  it  is  Honduras,  and  not  of  the 
darker  and  still  more  beautiful  San  Domingo.  It  is 
what  would  be  termed  a  slant-top  secretary,  and  the 
slanting  piece  unfolds  down  and  outwards,  and  rests 
on  two  "stops,"  to  make  a  writing  surface.  The 
desk  has  claw-and-ball  feet,  which  are  properly  short 
and  heavy,  as  they  should  be  on  such  an  article  of 
furniture. 

It  is  impossible  to  fix  the  date  of  this  desk  with 
positiveness,  except  that  it  is  well  over  the  century 
age.  It  appears  to  be  of  about  1770;  and  this, 
among  other  reasons,  from  the  markings  of  the  orig- 
inal brass  handles.  The  handles  which  were  on  it 
when  we  obtained  it  are  not  of  the  same  age  as  the 
desk,  which  is  apt  to  be  the  case  with  the  handles  of 
old  pieces.  But  the  original  markings  may  still  be 
discerned,  although  they  were  filled  in  and  polished, 
and  they  point  to  a  style  that  was  common  about  a 
century  and  a  quarter  ago.  And,  too,  the  drawer- 
fronts  overlap;  they  extend  over  the  drawer-open- 
ings instead  of  fitting  entirely  inside,  making  the 
face  of  each  drawer  larger  than  the  hole  that  the 
drawer  slides  into ;  and  tin's  is  another  of  the  numer- 

[  325  ] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

ous  indications  which,  put  together,  infallibly  indi- 
cate age. 

There  is  wealth  of  drawer  and  cubby  hole,  but  no 
secret  compartment !  For  that,  search  was  made  in 
vain.  One  should  always  examine  an  old  desk  for 
this,  as  secret  compartments  were  not  uncommon  in 
the  old  days.  And  one  may  readily  satisfy  himself. 
Measure  the  outside  dimensions;  then  measure  each 
drawer  and  pigeonhole;  and  if  at  any  part  there  is 
discrepancy,  investigate  there  for  the  space.  Be- 
hind the  swing-door  compartment  which  is  so  com- 
mon in  old  desks,  in  the  centre  of  the  pigeonholes,  is 
a  favorite  place  for  the  concealed  cavity,  and  it  is 
usual  to  get  at  it  by  touching  a  spring  and  drawing 
the  entire  swing-door  compartment  forward  like  a 
box — whereupon  the  space  is  disclosed,  behind. 

When  this  old  desk  was  obtained  it  was  among 
our  first  cares  to  varnish,  lightly,  the  inside  of  each 
drawer.  It  is  well  to  do  this  with  the  drawers  of 
any  old  piece,  for  it  gives  an  assurance  of  cleanliness 
and  a  sense  of  making  the  piece  one's  own. 

Extremely  low  book  shelves  occupy  the  greater 
part  of  the  lower  wall  space.  The  floor  is  covered 
with  some  rugs;  the  large  one  in  the  centre  of  Orien- 
tal make,  several  woven  of  torn  cloth  strips,  and  one 
"hooked"  in  a  pattern  of  woolen  tufts.  Two  of  the 

[326] 


A  slant-top  secretary  of  about  1770.      The  claw-and-ball  feet  are  short 
and  heavy,  as  they  should  be  on  so  heavy  a  piece  of  furniture 


THE  GREAT  FIREPLACE 

rag  rugs  were  woven  in  colors  to  match  the  colors  of 
the  room;  it  is  as  easy  to  do  this  as  to  have  rugs 
woven  at  random;  it  requires  only  somewhat  of  se- 
lection of  rags  and  directions  to  the  weaver  as  to  the 
warp. 

The  chairs,  as  the  chairs  in  such  a  room  ought  to 
be,  are  peculiarly  for  comfort  and  use.  There  is  a 
great  fireplace  chair;  also  a  chair  in  leather,  easy, 
broad,  rotund  and  low ;  there  are  a  couple  of  Connec- 
ticut splint-bottoms  from  the  musician's  gallery  of  a 
ballroom  of  a  century  ago;  for  the  desk  there  is  a 
Windsor  armchair.  This,  one  of  the  household  be- 
longings of  a  great-grandmother,  came  through  rea- 
sons genealogical  and  was  sent  from  the  other  side 
of  the  Atlantic. 

A  peculiarity  of  this  chair  is  its  unusual  lower 
bracing,  a  rung  stretching  from  one  front  leg  to  the 
other,  but  sweeping  far  back  under  the  chair,  semi- 
circularly,  in  so  doing,  so  as  to  be  out  of  the  way  of 
the  feet,  and  being  met,  at  the  back,  by  two  short 
bracing  pins,  one  leading  to  each  of  the  rear  legs. 

There  is  a  curious  point  to  notice  in  the  construc- 
tion of  this  Windsor  chair.  Its  back,  instead  of  be- 
ing of  an  unbroken  line  of  spokes,  has  a  splat  down 
the  centre  (there  being  an  extension  back,  there  are 
in  this  case  two  splats,  one  above  the  other),  and  this 

[329] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

peculiarity,  of  a  splat  in  the  back  of  a  Windsor,  may 
always  be  looked  upon  as  showing  that  it  was  made 
in  Great  Britain.  We  have  never  heard  of  an 
American  Windsor  made  in  this  way,  nor  of  other 
collectors  who  have  found  or  heard  of  any,  and  if 
any  have  been  so  made  they  are  very  rare. 

We  call  this  chair  an  "extension  back."  It  is 
not  that  the  chair-back  is  necessarily  higher  than 
with  other  Windsors,  but  that,  to  make  the  chair 
stronger,  there  is  a  hickory  arm  line  extended  around 
the  entire  back,  making  two  sets  of  short  spokes  in- 
stead of  one  set  of  long.  It  was  in  an  extension- 
back  Windsor  that  Jefferson  sat  when  he  wrote  the 
Declaration  of  Independence. 

There  is  also  a  rocking-chair  in  this  room;  it  is, 
after  all,  a  kind  of  chair  indigenous  to  our  soil. 
Rockers  were  made  in  America  before  they  were 
made  anywhere  else  in  the  world,  and  it  seems  proba- 
ble that  none  were  made  much  before  the  time  of  the 
Revolution.  Comfortable  chairs  that  they  are,  one 
thinks  with  amusement  of  the  serious-minded  Thor- 
eau  striving  long  to  make  his  favorite  chair  a  thing 
of  ease,  and  trying  upon  it  one  pair  of  rockers  after 
another  until,  shortly  before  his  death,  he  succeeded 
in  getting  it  precisely  to  suit  him,  by  making  a 
thing  which  was  of  distressing  discomfort  to  any 
one  else. 

[330] 


THE  GREAT  FIREPLACE 

In  choosing  which  pictures  we  should  hang  here,  it 
was  endeavored  to  harmonize  them,  not  only  with 
the  spirit  of  the  olden  time  but  also  with  the  charac- 
teristics of  the  room  itself. 

A  few  photographed  Corots  harmonize  delightfully 
with  the  suggestion  of  subdued  greenery  in  the  room 
and  with  the  trees  and  the  greenery  seen  from  the 
windows.  Such  pictures  as  these  are  of  any  time  or 
all  time.  A  Corot  is  always  as  old  as  Nature  her- 
self, and  always  as  young  as  to-day. 

Beside  the  fireplace  hangs  a  little  painting  of  a 
fireplace  in  an  ancient  house ;  and,  near  by,  a  photo- 
graph of  Mona  Lisa  smiles  the  enigmatical  smile  that 
has  piqued  and  fascinated  the  centuries.  Among  the 
other  pictures  is  an  attractive  old  engraving  of  a 
military  scene  in  ancient  Leipsic. 

The  windows  look  forth  on  a  garden  in  which 
stands  a  sun-dial,  always  a  thing  of  allurement  in 
connection  with  an  old  house  and  old  furniture.  It 
should  itself  be  old,  if  possible;  yet  even  the  most 
modern  copy  carries  the  subtle  suggestion  as  of  cen- 
turies. Our  own  is  American,  dates  from  early  in 
the  past  century,  and  is  fortunate  in  having  been 
made  for  almost  this  identical  latitude.  It  came  un- 
expectedly, in  the  trunk  of  a  visitor  who  had  saved 
it  from  her  father's  garden  and  knew  how  highly  we 
should  esteem  it. 

[331] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

The  charm  of  a  sun-dial  is  always  increased  if  it 
bears  a  motto  on  its  fingered  face;  and  it  may  be 
such  an  optimistic  boast  as,  "I  only  mark  the  shining 
hours,"  or  such  a  monitory  preachment  as,  "The 
night  cometh." 

Yet,  even  though  the  night  cometh,  your  sun-dial 
will  still — with  a  little  arithmetic — mark  the  shining 
hours  of  the  moon  as  well !  You  have  but  to  note 
the  hour  pointed  out  by  the  moon's  shadow;  then 
find  the  age  of  the  moon,  by  days,  in  the  calendar; 
and  then  take  three- fourths  of  that  number  and  add 
it,  as  hours,  to  the  hour  the  shadow  shows;  and  you 
have  found  the  time.  On  the  sixteenth  night  of  the 
moon,  therefore,  the  sun-dial  points  the  time  without 
necessitating  any  effort  mathematical. 


[332] 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE   ROOM    IN    YELLOW^ 

POOR  Deborah  Franklin,  while  her  Benjamin 
(who  must  have  had  admirable  domestic  dis- 
cipline ! )  was  in  Europe  on  one  of  his  extended 
absences,  refused  to  put  in  place  some  pictures  which 
needed  hanging,  so  fearful  was  she  of  displeasing  the 
eminent  man,  her  husband,  by  driving  nails  in  places 
of  which  his  superior  judgment  would  not  approve. 
Many  a  house  owner  of  to-day  dreads  the  blemish  of 
nail-holes,  and  yet  they  are  not  nearly  so  much  of  an 
injury  to  appearance  as  are  the  triangles  of  wire 
which  reach  from  the  pictures  to  a  molding  just  un- 
der the  ceiling  line.  It  seems  strange  that  such  un- 
necessary and  disturbing  wires  should  be  tolerated, 
for  they  are  a  jarring  feature  in  any  carefully- 
planned  room. 

[333] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

For  our  own  part,  we  permit  no  marring  sign  of 
nail  or  wire  or  picture  molding  to  appear.  The  wire 
is  stretched  tightly  across  the  back  of  the  picture,  and 
hung  upon  a  small  wire  nail,  driven  down  at  an  acute 
angle  into  the  wall.  If  driven  straight  in,  the  nail 
is  liable  to  crush  down  in  the  plaster;  neither  does  a 
nail  driven  in  straight  hold  so  great  a  weight  as  does 
one  driven  in  on  a  downward  angle.  Lath  and  plas- 
ter will  hold  any  ordinary  picture;  almost,  indeed, 
an  extraordinary  one,  and  it  is  not  necessary  to  go 
tapping  in  search  of  joist  or  scantling.  The  pic- 
tures are  hung  on  what  may  be  called  the  "eye  line," 
and  with  nothing  considered  but  the  needs  of  the 
room  and  the  light  on  the  pictures. 

Should  it  be  desired  to  change  the  position  of  a 
picture,  the  nail  can  be  drawn  out,  upward,  and  the 
hole  will  not  be  seen  if  it  was  made  with  a  small  and 
pointed  nail;  or,  even  if  sharp  eyes  detect  it,  it  does 
not  compare  as  a  blemish  with  the  lines  of  wire 
which  the  other  method  of  hanging  tolerates  in  sight 
at  all  times. 

Should  fear  be  felt  for  the  safety  of  a  heavy  pic- 
ture or  mirror,  use  a  screw  instead  of  a  nail,  and  set 
it  in  with  plaster  of  paris,  and  to  this,  when  hard,  the 
heaviest  picture  may  be  trusted. 

The  first  room  opening  from  the  great  old  hall  is 

[334] 


THE  ROOM  IN  YELLOW 

distinctively  a  room  in  yellow,  and  all  of  its  pictures 
are  framed  in  simple  gilt.  The  tall  windows  look 
out  at  the  roadway  and  the  triangular  green,  and  an- 
other window  looks  upon  the  garden,  but  the  light 
that  comes  into  the  room  is  softened  by  the  greenery 
of  maple  trees  in  front  and  by  the  quivering  leaves 
of  locusts  at  the  side. 

The  windows  are  recessed,  for  the  walls  are  heavy 
and  eighteen  inches  thick,  and  these  recesses  are  pan- 
eled, long  and  gracefully,  up  the  sides  and  at  the  tops. 

Beneath  the  windows,  between  the  sill  and  the 
floor,  there  are  broad  panels  of  wainscoting  in  har- 
mony with  the  woodwork  of  the  room. 

The  ceiling  is  bordered  by  a  delicate  cornice.  It 
is  of  charming  design,  and  very  simple,  with  mold- 
ings and  corner  squares  which  repeat  the  moldings  of 
the  door-frames  and  window-frames.  An  engirding 
line  of  stucco  traces  its  course  along  the  ceiling,  about 
nine  inches  from  the  cornice  design,  and  has  graceful 
ogee  curves  to  mark  the  angles  of  the  room  and  the 
projection  of  the  fireplace. 

The  fine  old  ceiling  and  the  walls  had  not  passed 
through  the  years  entirely  unscathed,  for  there  were 
holes  where  lamps  had  hung,  and  there  was  a  tin  pot- 
lid  which  covered  a  huge  round  space  connecting 
with  a  register  above,  and  there  were  sundry  other 

[•635] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

blemishes  as  well.  Great  pleasure  was  it  to  have 
the  ceiling  and  cornice  carefully  mended  by  a  good 
workman,  and  the  walls,  after  each  crevice  and  nail- 
hole  was  smoothed,  covered  with  a  paper  of  rich  yel- 
low, of  the  shade  known  as  Colonial.  This  room 
and  the  adjoining  dining  room — rooms  almost  of  a 
size,  and  with  the  same  characteristics  of  cornice  and 
fireplace  and  windows,  and  opening  into  each  other 
with  a  broad  archway,  fitted  with  sliding  doors — 
were  papered  with  precisely  the  same  design.  The 
ceilings  being  unusually  high,  a  stripe  was  carefully 
avoided,  and  a  conventional  pattern  chosen  which, 
at  the  length  of  the  room,  merges  into  a  plain  sur- 
face. The  paper  runs  from  baseboard  to  cornice 
without  border  or  break. 

The  windows  have  net  curtains  next  to  the  glass, 
with  one  small  wreath,  and  a  margin  of  tape,  and 
straight  and  simple  folds  reaching  from  a  plain  brass 
rod  at  the  top,  to  the  floor,  thus  defining  the  recess  of 
the  windows. 

Handwoven  curtains  of  dull,  soft  yellow  were 
hung  in  the  archway ;  and,  to  continue  the  effect,  the 
ceiling  was  washed,  in  distemper,  in  a  light  cream. 

The  problem  of  floor  covering  was  then  to  be  met, 
and  many  a  shop  was  visited  and  many  a  rug  spread 
down,  for  our  requirements  were  not  precisely  easy 

[336] 


THE  ROOM  IN  YELLOW 

to  meet.  The  rug  must  be  large,  must  not  be  be- 
yond a  modest  price,  and  must  be  in  yellow  or  a 
color  in  harmony  with  that. 

At  last,  we  came  across  a  Persian  rug,  which  we 
knew  was  precisely  the  thing  we  sought.  Its  back- 
ground was  a  dull  yellow  and  it  was  thirteen  feet  by 
ten. 

"I  will  give  you  this  rug  at  a  very  low  price,"  said 
the  dealer,  "if  you  can  use  it,  for  there  is  little  de- 
mand for  this  color."  And  he  named  a  price  ab- 
surdly low.  Thus  do  even  the  collector's  require- 
ments sometimes  become  a  final  advantage. 

The  brass  knobs  on  the  dark  doors,  the  yellow  up- 
holstering of  the  dark  furniture,  a  fox  skin  in  front 
of  the  hearth,  brass  andirons  and  fire  shovel,  all  add 
to  the  soft  yellow  effect  of  the  room.  And  in  the 
corner,  upon  a  bandy-legged  table,  stands  a  jar  from 
Palermo,  of  common  glazed  earthenware,  but  of 
perfect  and  ancient  curves  seldom  found  even  in 
Italy  and  of  a  rare  dull  yellow  hue.  Something 
from  Europe,  if  characteristic  of  the  real  Europe 
and  not  of  the  tourist  trade,  and  if  it  was  made  nat- 
urally, a  bit  of  metal  or  pottery  by  a  handicrafts- 
man working  as  his  ancestors  worked,  and  after  the 
same  models,  seems  old  and  harmonizes  with  the  old 
for  it  has  essential  characteristics  of  age. 

[337] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

There  was  little  hesitation  about  the  placing  of 
furniture  in  this  room,  for  it  was  schemed  into  posi- 
tion, in  day  dreams,  even  before  paste  and  paint 
brush  were  used. 

A  sofa  was  naturally  to  be  a  principal  piece,  and 
we  had  one  of  Empire  design. 

Chippendale  looked  upon  the  sofa,  which  was  be- 
ginning to  make  itself  felt  in  England  in  his  time, 
as  something  French,  and  his  own  most  distinguished 
sofa,  a  style  which  it  is  still  possible  to  find  although 
extremely  difficult,  looks  like  three  chairs  built  in  a 
row  and  is  really  a  settee  rather  than  a  sofa.  At  the 
recent  dispersion  of  the  furniture  of  an  old  Balti- 
more house,  such  a  Chippendale  settee  was  sold. 

Sofas  did  not  become  common  until  the  time  of 
Heppelwhite  and  Sheraton,  both  of  whom  made  ex- 
tremely beautiful  ones,  in  their  respectively  charac- 
teristic styles. 

The  early  Empire  furnished  fine  sofa  designs, 
which  were  copied  and  adapted  by  the  best  workers 
in  our  own  country. 

Our  sofa  stands,  long  and  hospitable,  between  the 
two  front  windows,  and  it  is  not  so  far  from  the  fire- 
place as  to  miss  the  influence  of  the  friendly  glow. 
"What  did  he  mean  by  ah-peer*?"  demanded  Silas 
Lapham,  of  his  wife,  after  the  departure  of  the  prig- 

[338] 


THE  ROOM  IN  YELLOW 

gish  architect ;  and  his  question  did  not  display  an  al- 
together unreasonable  ignorance,  for  it  is  so  needless, 
in  America,  to  pronounce  such  a  word  in  the  French 
way. 

Most  old  furniture  puts  its  best  feet  foremost,  and 
this  sofa  is  like  the  rest,  in  that  its  front  legs  are 
elaborate  wing-and-claw,  while  the  rear  legs  are  un- 
carved. 

This  sofa  is  of  San  Domingo  mahogany,  the  kind 
of  mahogany  most  highly  esteemed  by  old  cabinet- 
makers. For  some  years  past  the  principal  commer- 
cial source  of  San  Domingo  mahogany  has  been 
doors  from  old  houses  and  leaves  from  old  tables. 
West  India  mahogany  means  practically  the  same 
thing. 

This  kind  of  mahogany  is  heavy,  weighing  some 
six  pounds  to  the  square  foot,  one  inch  thick,  and 
much  of  the  Honduras  and  Mexican  mahogany  is  not 
much  more  than  a  third  as  heavy,  and  is  softer  and 
of  coarser  grain. 

A  great  deal,  and  probably  by  far  the  greater  part, 
of  the  so-called  mahogany  of  to-day  is  nothing  but 
birch. 

Mahogany  has  been  used  in  furniture  making 
for  only  two  hundred  years  and  came  into  real 
vogue  some  quarter  of  a  century  after  its  in- 

[339] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

troduction.  Its  admirable  texture  and  color,  and  its 
susceptibility  to  carving  and  polish,  and  its  strength, 
won  for  it  wide  popularity  in  England  and  America. 
In  France  it  also  became  popular,  but  never  suc- 
ceeded in  displacing  French  walnut. 

The  subject  of  woods  is  an  interesting  one.  In  the 
United  States,  a  hundred  years  ago,  in  addition  to 
the  familiar  kinds  of  wood,  the  cabinet-makers  used, 
largely  for  insets  and  veneers,  holly  and  button  and 
king  and  tulip  wood,  snake  and  purple  and  zebra 
wood,  Alexandria  and  Manila  wood,  cedar  and  satin 
and  yew  (the  yew  was  a  favorite  of  Louis  the  Four- 
teenth, for  furniture),  and  rosewood.  This  last 
wood  came  into  considerable  use  for  entire  pieces 
in  the  time  of  Victoria,  but  in  spite  of  certain  good 
points,  and  its  fortunate  name,  it  is  of  a  rather  un- 
beautiful  purplish  black,  not  to  be  compared  with 
the  serene  beauty  of  mahogany  or  the  dignity  and 
reserve  of  walnut. 

The  cabinet-makers  who  worked  in  such  queer 
woods  did  queer  things  with  them — or  at  least  we 
might  fairly  suppose  so  on  reading  of  their  charges 
for  plinthing  and  therming  and  dovetailing,  for 
plowing  and  tonguing  ends,  for  making  cross-bands 
and  octagonals  and  toad-back  moldings. 

The  piano,  between  the  door  and  window,  is,  nat- 

[34°] 


THE  ROOM  IN  YELLOW 

urally,  not  old.  It  is,  perforce,  a  youthful  interloper. 
Yet  its  dark  wood,  and  perhaps  a  sense  of  the  very 
inevitableness  of  its  lack  of  an  old  age,  make  it  seem 
entirely  fitting.  The  imagination  feels  the  fascina- 
tion of  spinet  and  virginal,  of  clavichord  and  harpsi- 
chord, and  pictures  fair  women  of  the  past  lightly 
touching  their  keys.  But,  after  all,  the  modern 
piano  is  more  desirable  than  any  of  these,  even  in  the 
eyes  of  the  most  confirmed  lover  of  the  antique. 
The  old  forms  look  very  decorative  though — and 
it  seems  that  they  may  even  be  utilitarian,  for 
there  comes  to  mind  an  old  harpsichord,  with  finely 
tapered  legs,  and  distinguished  appearance,  which  is 
utilized  by  a  Savannah  family  for  the  storage  of 
bath  towels ! 

So  far  back  as  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
a  New  York  advertisement  declares  that  "the  piano 
forte  is  become  so  exceedingly  fashionable  in  Europe 
that  few  polite  families  are  without  it,"  and  it  was 
many  years  ago  that  the  manufacture  of  domestic 
pianos  succeeded  importations. 

Near  the  side  window  of  this  room,  in  the  corner 
beside  the  arch,  is  the  old  tilting  table  from  the  East- 
ern Shore,  with  its  graceful  snake  feet,  and  its  great 
glowing  disc  of  mahogany  glimmering  softly  with 
lights  from  the  windows  and  from  the  fire,  and  ready 

[343] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

to  be  drawn  forward  for  use  as  the  afternoon  moves 
toward  its  close. 

The  place  of  honor  beside  the  hearth  is  held  by 
one  of  the  "seats  of  the  mighty."  It  is  a  chair, 
which  was  once  the  property  of  General  Anthony 
Wayne  at  his  home  at  Waynesborough,  and  came 
to  us  from  a  friend  who  had  obtained  it  thirty  years 
before  from  a  certain  Lydia,  widow  of  a  relative  of 
the  General.  The  entire  furniture  of  the  old  home- 
stead at  the  time  of  General  Wayne's  occupancy  still 
remains  there,  the  treasured  possession  of  his  de- 
scendant— except  this  chair,  which  descended  collat- 
erally and  finally  came  our  way. 

It  is  a  Chippendale,  and  is  broad  in  the  seat,  and 
strong,  for  Chippendale  designed  chairs  for  men  who 
wore  great-skirted  coats  and  women  with  full-hooped 
petticoats,  not  for  fragile  maidens  in  skimpy,  high- 
waisted  gowns  or  for  gallants  all  sentiment  and  in- 
croyables.  Sheraton  and  Heppelwhite  made  chairs 
for  these  latter,  so  slender  and  delicate  that  few  sur- 
vive for  our  delectation. 

The  front  legs  of  the  Wayne  chair  are  cabriole  and 
end  in  webbed  feet.  The  back  of  the  chair  has  an  en- 
laced splat  of  graceful  jar  shape.  The  spaces  be- 
tween this  splat  and  the  side  pieces  of  the  back  are 
as  carefully  planned  as  is  the  splat  itself. 

[344] 


A  Chair  owned  by  Anthony  Wayne  :  a  Chippendale  of  faultless  proportions 


An  Open-work  Brass  Fender,  Eighteenth  Century  5  found  in  South 
9  Carolina,  thrown  away,  under  a  porch 


THE  ROOM  IN  YELLOW 

So  well  proportioned  is  this  chair,  and  so  perfect 
a  specimen  of  Chippendale's  art,  that  we  are  of  the 
opinion  that  it  came  from  the  master's  own  work- 
shop. Anthony  Wayne  was  a  man  of  wealth  and 
prominence  and  position,  even  before  the  Revolu- 
tion. What  more  likely  than  that  he,  like  many 
other  rich  men,  should  send  to  London  for  furniture, 
and  that,  sending  there,  he  should  order  from  the 
cabinet-maker  of  greatest  distinction,  of  that  time. 
It  is  certain  that  some  of  Chippendale's  chairs  came 
to  America. 

The  chair  is  of  sober  brown  walnut  and  has  come 
down  through  all  these  years  unscathed  and  un- 
harmed, for  it  has  always  been  carefully  cared  for. 
The  seat  lifts  from  the  frame,  which  shows  as  a  mar- 
gin around  the  upholstering.  This  seat  was  high 
when  we  first  saw  the  chair,  and  was  covered  with  a 
log-cabin  pattern  in  patchwork.  On  removing  this 
cover,  two  waistcoats  of  ancient  cut  and  snuff-col- 
ored cloth  came  to  light,  capacious  and  many-but- 
toned; but  not  military!  Under  them  was  the 
original  cover  of  the  chair,  a  dark  deep  red  stuff  of 
heavy,  coarse  weave,  with  a  brocade-like  pattern  in 
still  deeper  red.  Chippendale's  own  words  come  to 
mind  as  to  the  best  covering  for  such  a  chair:  "If 
the  seats  are  covered  with  red  morocco  they  will  have 

[347] 


18 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

a  fine  effect,"  he  writes,  adding,  "They  are  usually 
the  same  stuff  as  the  curtains." 

As  the  cover  was  quite  worn  through,  and  the 
cushion  was  much  flattened,  the  seat  was  reuphol- 
stered.  For  our  room,  red  would  not  do,  so  a  piece 
of  dull  yellow  silk  brocade,  with  a  small  square  pat- 
tern, was  used.  The  original  hair  was  used  for  pad- 
ding the  seat — white  horse-hair,  as  straight  as  when 
it  grew  on  a  horse — and  as  many  as  possible  of  the 
old  hand-made  tacks  were  also  replaced. 

The  top  rail  of  the  back  of  a  pure  Chippendale 
chair  is  a  thing  of  beauty.  On  the  Wayne  chair  it 
is  the  shape  of  a  bow,  dipping  to  join  the  splat, 
gently  sweeping  toward  the  sides,  and  ending  in  a 
slightly  pro jecting^ curve  at  either  end. 

The  back  is  exactly  twenty-two  inches  high,  which 
is  a  height  spoken  of  as  admirable  by  Chippendale. 
Just  twenty-two  inches  is  the  front  width  of  the 
generous  seat. 

The  gentle  art  of  finding  Chippendales  has  given 
us,  for  this  room,  two  other  chairs  of  this  design,  each 
with  straight  heavy  legs  and  graceful  backs,  and 
quite  different  from  the  Wayne  chair.  One  of  these 
chairs  has  a  splat  so  perforated  as  to  look  like  several 
separate  reed-like  pieces,  rising  and  joining,  and  then 
spreading  to  meet  the  top  rail. 

[348] 


THE  ROOM  IN  YELLOW 

Near  the  fireplace  is  a  chair  of  the  slender-legged 
type  of  Sheraton,  with  a  curved  and  crested  sort  of 
top.  It  might  be  called  a  Sheraton-Gothic,  and  is 
one  of  the  many  examples  which  remind  the  collec- 
tor how  easy  it  has  been  to  combine  styles,  and  how 
useless  it  is  to  attempt  to  classify  every  chair  arbi- 
trarily. 

A  slender-spoked  Windsor,  of  graceful  propor- 
tions, is  also  here.  It  is  marked  with  the  name  of 
the  maker,  burned  in,  but  without  giving  his  town  or 
State.  It  can  be  definitely  traced  back,  however,  to 
1790  and  to  Pennsylvania. 

Windsors  are  of  considerable  variety  in  shape,  but 
there  are  always  unmistakable  characteristics.  The 
curving  back,  of  slender  spokes  of  hickory  or  similar 
wood,  is  the  principal  distinguishing  mark.  The  seat 
is  always  of  one  piece  of  wood  and  it  is  usually  sad- 
dle-shaped. The  legs,  set  firmly  into  holes  bored 
in  the  wooden  seat,  are  lathe-turned.  It  may  almost 
be  said  that  there  never  was  an  ungraceful  Windsor. 
They  are  by  no  means  among  the  most  precious  of 
old  chairs,  but  they  are  always  honored  and  desir- 
able. There  are  a  couple  of  Windsors  in  a  corner  of 
old  St.  Paul's  in  New  York — and  when  a  Colonial 
Society  attends  service  there,  it  is  a  matter  of  jestful 
comment  that  the  sexton  jealously  holds  down  one 

[349] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

of  the  chairs  and  his  assistant  the  other,  so  that  the 
chairs  shall  be  safe. 

The  bandy-legged  table  upon  which  stands  the 
yellow  jar,  is  the  one  which  we  found,  as  a  wreck, 
for  one  dollar  in  Maryland.  The  andirons  are 
those  from  Blennerhassett  that  were  among  our 
earliest  possessions  and  are  still  among  our  most 
prized. 

The  pictures  are  mostly  paintings  of  scenes  well 
known  and  loved;  one  shows  our  old  stone  house 
environed  by  apple  trees ;  another,  the  red-tiled  roofs 
of  the  Ohio  town  of  Zoar;  another,  the  valley  of  the 
Seine  from  Meudon. 

Following  the  admirable  French  idea  of  simplicity 
in  furnishing  the  mantel,  only  a  clock,  and  two  tall 
candlesticks,  and  one  single  slim  glass  vase,  stand 
there.  The  clock  is  old,  with  Empire  case  and  orna- 
ments, and  has  two  small  sphinxes,  in  brass,  at  the 
sides,  surmounting  narrow  lines  of  brass  pedestal; 
and  the  front  of  the  case,  beneath  the  white  porcelain 
face,  is  of  mahogany  overlaid  with  curious  brass 
arabesques. 

The  candlesticks  are  tall,  being  eleven  inches  high, 
and  have  beaded  bands  around  the  base;  in  two 
places,  in  the  stem,  they  become  very  slim;  between 
these  slim  places  are  concave  panels,  making  a  grace- 

[350] 


THE  ROOM  IN  YELLOW 

f ul  and  unusual  design.  They  are  of  Sheffield  plate ; 
a  treatment  of  silver  highly  valued  by  connoisseurs 
and  collectors,  but  to  a  great  extent  superseded  by 
electro-plating,  since  its  discovery. 

Sheffield  plating,  a  name  so  important  to  collec- 
tors, is — one  may  almost  say  was! — an  interesting 
process.  Thin  plates  of  silver  are  wired  upon  one  or 
both  sides  of  an  oblong  ingot  of  copper.  The  ingot 
is  placed  in  a  furnace  so  arranged  that  its  interior 
can  be  constantly  watched,  for  the  metal  must  be 
withdrawn  at  the  exact  instant  of  adhesion,  as  fus- 
ion would  otherwise  take  place.  After  the  removal 
of  the  wire,  the  ingot  is  put  back  and  forth  between 
rollers  until  it  has  become  a  sheet  of  the  required 
thickness.  No  matter  how  thin  it  is  made,  the  rela- 
tive thickness  between  the  copper  and  the  layers  of 
silver  is  maintained.  Ornamental  borders,  how- 
ever, were  necessarily  plated  by  a  separate  process  or 
were  often  of  solid  silver. 

Across  the  mantel  stands  an  old  Empire  mirror,  of 
a  kind  which  came  into  common  use  shortly  after 
1800,  and  of  which  many  were  made  from  1810  to 
1820.  This  measures  five  feet  and  an  inch  in 
length  and  two  feet  in  height,  and  two  upright  mold- 
ings divide  it  into  three  sections  of  glass.  Very  sim- 
ple in  design  is  the  whole  thing,  with  gently  swelling 

[351] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

puffs  in  the  moldings  of  top  and  sides,  and  without 
extravagance  of  outline  or  decoration. 

We  found  this  in  Delaware.  It  had  fallen  from 
its  sometime  high  estate,  and  was  painted  an  unani- 
mated  mud  color.  Four  dollars  was  the  purchase 
price,  and  it  was  sent  to  a  gilder's  to  have  it  put  in 
order.  There,  many  discouragements  were  offered, 
among  them  the  strange  idea,  fixed  in  so  many  mod- 
ern workers'  minds,  that  a  new  mirror  could  be  made 
for  less  money  than  the  restoration  of  this  old  one. 
Finding  that  we  did  not  wish  a  new  mirror,  the  gilder 
was  still  very  dubious  about  gilding  the  old;  it 
would  cost,  he  declared,  at  least  twenty-eight  dol- 
lars, and  might  not  be  satisfactory  even  then. 

So  the  mirror  was  sent  home  and  set  up  in  our  own 
workroom,  where  we  could  at  least  experiment  with 
it.  Scraping  easily  took  off  two  coats  of  paint,  and 
underneath  was  a  surface  of  real  gold-leaf  which 
would  make  an  excellent  base  for  the  new  gilding. 

After  a  little  smoothing  and  a  coat  of  varnish,  the 
mirror  was  given  a  coat  of  bronze  powder,  of  a  good 
gold  color,  moistened  with  banana  oil  and  applied 
with  a  fine  camel' s-hair  brush  an  inch  wide.  As 
gold  powders  are  of  varying  tints,  and  a  quiet  hue 
was  desired,  a  little  red  and  black  oil  color  was 
stirred  in  the  banana  oil  until,  by  experiment,  the 

[352] 


THE  ROOM  IN  YELLOW 

desired  tone  was  reached.  Green  would  have  given 
a  green  hue  had  that  been  wanted.  A  few  days 
after,  having  some  powder  left,  the  mirror  was  given 
a  second  coat,  and  following  that  a  light  coat  of 
varnish  to  protect  the  gilt  from  fingermarks  when 
dusting. 

The  entire  thing  was  done  for  an  outlay  of  one 
dollar,  and  the  result  is  admirable  in  appearance. 
Perhaps  it  may  not  last  as  long  as  a  bronze-gilt  ap- 
plied by  expert  hands,  but  it  can  be  easily  renewed, 
and  the  work  of  another  coat  would  be  but  half  an 
hour's  task. 


[353] 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

THE  OUTFITTING  OF  A  GUEST  ROOM 

IT  is  perhaps  a  question,  whether  it  shows  the 
eternal  youth  of  the  world  or  its  illimitable  age 
— at  least,  it  shows  an  eternally  continuing  similar- 
ity, in  spite  of  vast  changes  in  social  life,  household 
ways,  habits  of  thought,  civilization,  government — 
that  so  much  of  the  past  would  precisely  fit  to-day. 

Now,  look  at  Elisha,  nearly  three  thousand  years 
ago.  At  a  place  where  he  is  staying,  a  local  com- 
mittee comes  to  tell  him  that  "the  situation  of  the 
city  is  pleasant,"  but  complains  of  the  water  supply. 
When  mischievous  children  cry  out  in  glee  at  his 
baldness  he  becomes  angry,  as  might  an  irascible 
bald-headed  gentleman  of  to-day.  When  a  woman 
does  him  a  disinterested  favor  he  cynically  asks  her 
in  what  quarter  she  expects  his  influence  in  return. 

[354] 


THE   OUTFITTING   OF   A   GUEST   ROOM 

One  feels  in  quite  a  modern  atmosphere.  And 
when  the  woman  of  Shunem  entertains  him,  she  of- 
fers the  precise  essentials  of  the  hospitality  of  to- 
day: she  welcomes  him  to  dine,  and  then  has  him 
conducted  to  his  room,  having  "set  for  him  there  a 
bed,  and  a  table,  and  a  stool,  and  a  candlestick." 

Thus  the  first  recorded  summary  of  what  must 
needs  be  in  a  guest  room  was  the  same  three  thousand 
years  ago  as  it  is  now :  to  give  a  bed  and  a  light,  and 
conveniences  for  sitting  down  and  for  the  toilet. 

The  bed,  naturally  enough,  is  the  principal  feature 
of  any  guest«  room.  And  the  lover  of  the  old  wishes 
to  have  one  with  four  high  posts  and  a  canopy  top. 

It  is  not  so  easy  to  find  old  four-posters  as  to  find 
some  other  classes  of  furniture.  When  worn  out,  a 
bedstead  was  generally  thrown  away.  There  was 
no  other  purpose  to  which  it  could  be  put,  and  it  was 
not  often  kept  just  for  an  indefinite  desire  of  keep- 
ing, as  was  many  an  old  table  and  cupboard  and 
chest-on-chest. 

As  with  so  many  things  that  look  well,  the  incep- 
tion of  the  four-poster  did  not  come  from  any 
thought  of  looks,  but  of  utilitarian  comfort.  It  was 
highly  advisable — it  was  practically  necessary — in 
the  raw  winter  climate  of  England  or  the  United 
States,  before  the  days  of  well-heated  houses,  to 

[,355] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

afford  more  protection  to  a  bed  than  came  from 
quilts  and  blankets.  And  the  consequent  four  posts 
and  curtains  are  so  decorative  that  it  is  still  a  pleas- 
ure to  see  them. 

The  bed  in  the  guest  room  of  the  once-while  inn 
is  not  only  of  the  olden  time,  in  both  age  and  appear- 
ance, but  it  possesses  also  the  hygienic  merits  of  the 
most  advanced  beds  of  to-day,  having  set  within  it 
an  iron  bed  as  already  described. 

Its  four  slender  Heppelwhite  posts  are  sur- 
mounted by  a  canopy  which  rises  in  the  middle  in  a 
bow-shaped  curve,  so  that,  although  the  posts  are  but 
six  feet  high,  and  the  canopy  is  therefore  at  that 
height  at  both  the  head  and  the  foot,  it  sweeps  up  in 
the  middle  in  this  bow-shaped  curve,  giving  an  airy 
and  spacious  effect. 

The  canopy  is  covered  with  a  corded  cream-white 
French  chintz,  old-fashipned  in  appearance,  in  a 
pattern  of  great  sunny,  luxuriant  roses.  It  not  only 
looks  well,  but  befits  the  past,  as,  at  the  period  at 
which  this  bed  was  made,  bedroom  hangings  in- 
cluded such  materials  as  damask  and  fustian  and 
chintz.  "Bought  my  wife  a  chint,"  records  garru- 
lous old  Pepys.  The  chintz  for  this  bed  is  probably 
of  much  the  same  material  as  that  referred  to  by 
Franklin,  who  sent  from  England,  for  bed  and  win- 

[356] 


The  Heppelwhite  Four-poster,  draped  and  stripped,  showing  how 
the  metal  bed  is  used 


THE   OUTFITTING   OF   A   GUEST    ROOM 

dow  hangings,  "fifty-six  yards  of  cotton,  printed 
curiously  from  copper  plates." 

Coverlid  and  valance  are  of  the  same  chintz  as  the 
canopy,  and  so  are  the  panels  at  the  head  and  the  foot 
of  the  bed,  and  there  is  a  narrow  box-plaited  frill  of 
chintz  outlined  around  the  edge  of  the  canopy  and 
fastened  with  brass  tacks.  Two  or  three  chairs  are 
covered  with  the  same  old-fashioned  looking  mate- 
rial, and  there  are  box-plaited  frills  of  it  across  the 
top  of  each  of  the  three  windows. 

One  obtains  in  this  manner  a  distinctively  old- 
time  effect,  and  it  is  added  to  by  the  long  white  mus- 
lin curtains  and  the  white  muslin  that  covers  the 
dressing-table. 

The  frame  of  the  bed,  undraped,  is  rather  plain,  as 
were  by  far  the  greater  number  of  antique  beds,  they 
offering  only  shape  in  their  framework  and  relying 
for  further  effectiveness  upon  draperies  or  hangings. 

Although  there  is  a  scarcity  of  old-fashioned  beds, 
they  are  still  to  be  found,  of  various  degrees  of  elab- 
orateness or  the  reverse.  Fortune,  in  the  shape  of  a 
neighbor,  brought  us  our  second  one  the  other  day, 
with  enormous  posts,  the  neighbor  offering  it  as  a 
friendly  gift.  "But  you  must  n't  think  this  is  much," 
he  said,  in  modest  disparagement;  "for,  to  tell 
the  truth,  I  paid  only  eighty  cents  for  it,  at  an  auc- 

[359] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

tion,  and  the  posts  are  too  high  for  my  rooms,  but  I 
know  your  ceilings  are  high  enough." 

And  here  is  a  suggestion  for  a  different  treat- 
ment from  that  of  the  four-poster  first  described. 
We  shall  set  it  up  in  the  English  style,  like  that  bed 
which  Mr.  Pickwick  prepared  to  sleep  in  by  mistake 
on  a  certain  eventful  night :  a  bed  will  be  set  inside 
the  posts,  in  such  a  way  as  to  leave,  inside  the  hang- 
ing curtains,  "a  little  path,  terminating  in  a  rush- 
bottomed  chair,  just  wide  enough  to  admit  of  a  per- 
son's getting  into  or  out  of  bed." 

Beds  were  held  in  such  consideration,  in  past 
times,  that  it  is  a  pity  that  so  many  collectors  entirely 
neglect  them,  through  not  understanding  that  the 
stately  frames  can  be  used  with  modern  springs  and 
up-to-date  adjuncts.  Mary  Washington  willed  to 
George  her  best  bed,  and  Shakespeare,  dying,  grimly 
willed  his  second-best  to  that  Ann  whom,  very  con- 
siderably older  than  himself,  he  had  married  when 
but  a  lad  under  age. 

Next  to  the  bed,  following  the  order  for  old  Elisha, 
comes  the  dressing-table.  In  this  room  it  is  four  feet 
six  inches  long,  and  only  two  feet  three  inches  high 
— a  comfortable,  agreeable  height  for  its  purpose. 
Beneath  the  table,  and  out  of  sight  behind  the  mus- 
lin covering,  there  is  necessarily  quite  a  space ;  and  it 

[360] 


THE   OUTFITTING   OF   A   GUEST   ROOM 

is  always  an  excellent  thing  to  put  in  such  a  place, 
for  hats  and  miscellaneous  finery,  two  or  three  of 
those  old-time,  gorgeously  papered  bandboxes  of  the 
poke-bonnet  era.  An  old-fashioned  mahogany- 
framed  mirror,  large  enough  for  use  by  one  either 
sitting  or  standing  in  front  of  it,  leans,  from  the  ta- 
ble, against  the  wall. 

It  is  probable  that  Elisha  had  some  indoor  ablu- 
tionary  means,  but,  whether  he  had  or  not,  the  guest 
of  to-day  must  not  be  without  such  facilities. 

And  so,  in  this  room,  there  is  an  old  square  wash- 
stand,  from  an  old  home  garret,  and  the  top  is  so 
made  that  the  washbowl  fits  into  it. 

We  were  fortunate  in  obtaining,  from  the  aged 
owner  of  a  very  old  house,  a  pitcher  and  bowl,  of  a 
charming  soft-hued  blue,  without  a  chip  or  a  mar 
upon  either  one  of  the  pieces. 

They  are  of  an  old-fashioned  kind,  made  in  Eng- 
land, and  display  a  picture,  large  in  the  bottom  of 
the  bowl  and  a  trifle  smaller  upon  either  side  of  the 
slender  octagonal  pitcher,  which  purports  to  be  a 
view  of  Niagara  Falls.  But  what  a  Niagara!  It 
is  given  as  a  sort  of  Yosemite,  with  one  fall  above 
another;  at  one  side  of  the  larger  and  lower  fall  are 
some  Indian  wigwams,  on  the  other  bank  is  a  mas- 
sive European  castle,  and  in  the  foreground,  look- 

[361], 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

ing  with  awe  at  the  falling  water,  stand  a  group  of 
men  and  women  fashionably  costumed.  But  all  the 
work  is  most  admirably  done. 

Instead  of  coming  to  the  inn,  this  pitcher  and 
bowl  came  near  to  going  in  a  far  different  direction. 
The  aged  owner  said  that  she  had  no  desire  to  keep 
the  articles,  but  that  her  niece,  "a  red-headed  art 
student,  down  to  New  York,"  wanted  them. 
"But,"  continued  the  owner  thoughtfully,  "she  never 
said  anything  about  money."  When  the  observa- 
tion was  made  a  second  time,  it  took  on  the  propor- 
tions of  an  undoubted  hint — and  when  negotiations 
were  complete  (the  owner  wanted  only  a  modest 
three  dollars  for  the  set!)  the  woman  was  still  mur- 
muring, "My  niece  never,  no  never!  said  anything 
about  money." 

It  is  still  an  amusing  memory,  how  carefully  those 
pieces  of  blue  were  driven  home,  held  in  the  lap  with 
possible  excess  and  superfluity  of  caution. 

For  the  stool  that  Elisha  was  given,  a  chair  would 
certainly  answer;  but,  fortunately,  this  room  can 
match  the  literal  stool,  with  a  low  cricket  from  an 
old  New  York  house.  Of  the  chairs,  the  one  most 
prized  is  the  old  Shaker  rocker  which  in  the  early 
days  of  our  collecting  meant  so  much  to  us. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  limit  a  room  to  the  single 

[362] 


"  An  old  black-fronted  Franklin,  brass-banded  and  brass-knobbed 


THE   OUTFITTING   OF   A   GUEST   ROOM 

Shunamite  candlestick.  And  therefore,  as  a  collec- 
tor naturally  picks  up  old  candlesticks  in  a  great 
variety  of  places,  there  are  sufficient  to  put  a  pair 
upon  the  mantel  and  another  pair  on  the  dressing- 
table. 

With  the  four-poster,  and  the  rose-colored  chintz, 
it  was  particularly  needful  that  a  corresponding  air 
of  the  old  time  be  maintained  throughout,  and  so,  for 
the  walls,  there  was  selected  a  white  paper,  relieved 
by  chintz-like  stripes,  with  a  design  in  small  pink 
roses  and  attendant  greenery. 

It  is  a  cheerful,  sunny  room,  and  there  is  an  old 
black-fronted  Franklin,  brass-banded  and  brass- 
knobbed,  built  within  a  white  mantelpiece  of  wood. 

Within  the  fireplace  stand  brass  andirons,  with 
iron  feet,  from  an  old  house  in  Tallahassee,  and 
above,  on  the  wall,  is  a  picture  of  Mayflower  days. 
There  are  also  in  the  room  a  few  old-fashioned  prints 
and  six  small  colored  prints  of  famous  old  houses. 

Upon  the  floor  are  rugs,  several  of  them  woven  or 
braided  for  this  room,  with  rose  or  pink  effect.  A 
little  care  in  the  selection  of  cloth  and  in  the  choice 
of  warp  will  secure  whatever  harmony  and  predomi- 
nance of  color  may  be  desired.  At  Mount  Vernon 
great  attention  was  given  to  hand-weaving  for  floor- 
covering;  and  at  one  time  Martha  Washington  went 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

beyond  this,  by  having  some  old  silk  gowns  frayed 
out,  spun  roughly,  and  woven  into  covers  for  the  sit- 
ting-room chairs,  on  the  looms  in  her  own  spinning- 
sheds. 

This  guest  room  is  the  first  room  at  the  top  of  the 
stairs  leading  up  from  the  broad  hall;  and  up  the 
stairway  there  is  a  mounting  line  of  pen-and-ink  por- 
traits, by  cartoonists,  "to  brighten  and  shorten  the 
way."  On  the  landing  is  a  corner  shelf  with  half  a 
dozen  candlesticks  above  and  half  a  dozen  pair  of 
snuffers  below  (all  old,  and  of  various  associations), 
ready  for  those  setting  bedward. 

It  has  been  a  delight  to  outfit,  also,  the  other 
rooms  besides  the  guest  room  upon  this  floor :  rooms, 
little  or  big,  with  pleasing  outlook  upon  village 
street  or  stone-walled  meadows  or  wooded  hills. 

Upon  the  walls  of  one  of  these  rooms  (it  claims  to 
be  the  room  in  which  Aaron  Burr  slept)  we  found  a 
wall-paper  of  old-fashioned  block  pattern,  with 
white  strongly  predominating,  but  with  a  sprig  of 
green  flower,  shaded  in  black,  upon  each  block. 

Tradition,  local  memory,  village  authority  undis- 
puted, declare  the  paper  to  have  been  put  on  in  1842, 
and  it  is  certainly  like  patterns  of  that  period.  It 
seemed  a  pity  to  cover  it — and  yet  there  were  a  num- 
ber of  blemishes  that  could  not  be  overlooked,  and, 

[366] 


o 
bx> 


* 


•B      O 

:  1 

o  '3 


THE   OUTFITTING   OF   A   GUEST   ROOM 

of  course,  it  was  quite  impossible  to  find  any  paper 
like  it  to  use  in  repairs.  But  here  is  a  stratagem 
which  may  be  suggestive  to  others  who  may  come 
upon  a  similar  problem.  Very  carefully,  the  paper 
was  stripped  from  the  broad  chimney-breast  above 
the  fireplace,  and  the  fragments,  cut  into  pieces, of  a 
shape  to  match  the  lines  of  the  pattern,  were  pasted 
over  the  little  holes  and  blemishes.  There  was 
enough  to  make  the  paper  everywhere  perfect  in  ap- 
pearance: everywhere  but  on  the  denuded  chimney- 
breast.  In  covering  that,  a  green  cartridge  paper,  of 
a  green  to  match  the  sprigs  in  the  squares,  was  found. 
Upon  this  was  placed,  in  relief,  a  white  garland  of 
Georgian  style.  The  woodwork  of  the  room  was 
painted  white.  Andirons  of  black  iron  were  placed 
in  the  fireplace.  Brass  candlesticks  were  set  upon 
the  dark  marble  mantel.  Between  them  is  a  small 
bust,  in  faience,  of  a  sober-faced  Donatello  boy.  And, 
thus  retaining  the  old  wall-paper,  there  seems  some- 
how to  have  been  retained  also  the  subtle  charm  of 
old  atmosphere  and  simplicity. 


[369] 


CHAPTER  XIX 

MAKESHIFTS 

THACKERAY,  in  his  delightfully  reminiscent 
description  of  a  room  full  of  "old  armour, 
prints,  pictures,  pipes,  china  (all  crack'd), 
old  rickety  tables,  and  chairs  broken-backed,"  tells 
of  utilizing  a  Mameluke's  dagger  for  the  toasting  of 
muffins. 

So  naturally  does  the  collector  turn  toward  expe- 
dients and  substitutes  that  it  would  almost  seem 
there  must  be  some  occult  connection  between  things 
of  the  past  and  makeshifts.  And  it  may  be  that 
some  makeshifts  which  have  come  in  our  way  may 
prove  suggestive  to  other  collectors,  meeting  unex- 
pected problems. 

Makeshifts  are  of  two  kinds:  those  which  are  in- 
tended to  be  permanent,  and  those  which  are  for  only 
temporary  use — the  latter  class  representing,  so  to 

[370] 


MAKESHIFTS 

speak,  the  substance  of  things  still  hoped  for  and  the 
former  being  an  evidence  of  things  that  will  not  be 
seen. 

Among  our  own  permanent  makeshifts  is  an  ar- 
rangement for  a  pair  of  candle-brackets.  Needing  a 
light  upon  either  side  of  an  old  dressing-glass,  the 
proper  candelabra  were  searched  for  in  vain.  So 
two  hat-hooks,  of  brass,  of  the  largest  size — the  big 
kind  made  to  bolt  through  hat-racks — were  pur- 
chased. They  have  quite  a  satisfactory  curve  and 
stand  up  with  a  good  deal  of  dignity.  They  are 
bolted  through  short  pieces  of  wood  which  project  a 
little  above  the  back  edge  of  the  dressing-table.  On 
the  top  of  each  hook  is  soldered  the  metal  end  of  an 
electric  light  bulb  of  just  the  right  diameter  for  a 
candle.  And,  to  provide  against  drip,  there  is 
slipped  over  each  candle-holder  a  glass  disc  of  the 
kind  long  made  and  used  for  this  purpose. 

Makeshifts  are  not  necessarily  small.  On  the 
contrary,  they  may  be  of  considerable  consequence. 
And  in  regard  to  this  class  it  may  be  worth  while  to 
give  an  experience  in  the  making  of  a  makeshift  fire- 
place. The  dining  room  of  a  house  in  the  city  in 
which  we  lived  just  previous  to  adopting  this  old  inn 
had  two  windows,  both  in  one  wall,  opening  on  a 
brick-paved  path  and  an  eight-foot  fence,  the  room 

[371] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

thus  being  in  dull  shadow,  with  nothing  to  relieve 
its  box-like  quality  of  shape. 

We  possessed,  to  put  in  it,  the  corner-cupboard  of 
Bethlehem,  and  had  selected  a  very  light  yellow  pa- 
per in  a  chintz  stripe  to  heighten  the  ceiling  and 
brighten  the  room.  White  paint  and  a  light  rug 
and  ceiling,  and  very  thin  muslin  at  the  windows, 
were  materially  to  aid  in  the  brightening  effect. 

The  corner-cupboard  would  fill  one  corner — but  a 
fireplace  was  needed  in  the  other !  We  did  not  own 
the  house.  It  was  a  matter  for  cogitation.  And  the 
result  of  the  cogitation  was  a  determination  to  have 
a  fireplace,  of  sorts,  constructed. 

It  was  not  the  kind  of  a  job  to  give  a  carpenter— 
unless,  indeed,  one  could  discover  a  carpenter  with 
imagination.  To  explain  the  idea  would  give  a 
wrong  impression  of  something  absurd  or  else  tre- 
mendously elaborate. 

Left  by  the  outgoing  tenant,  in  the  cellar,  were 
scrap  ends  of  wood,  a  few  long  boards,  a  window 
sash  and,  most  fortunate  of  all,  and  as  if  Fate  had 
definitely  intended  it,  a  shelf  with  two  heavy  wooden 
brackets.  We  felt  like  Robinson  Crusoe  taking  an 
inventory. 

One  evening,  after  paperhangers  and  cleaners  had 
gone  home,  saw  and  hammer  were  seized,  and  some 

[372] 


MAKESHIFTS 

of  the  boards  were  made  into  a  sort  of  large  frame- 
work, like  a  capital  H,  of  the  size  of  the  corner  into 
which  the  fireplace  was  to  fit,  and  of  just  the  length 
to  reach  from  the  ceiling  to  the  floor.  Pieces  of 
wood  were  nailed,  after  mitering  the  ends,  against 
the  base  of  the  wall,  at  the  ceiling  line,  and  in  the 
centre.  Then  the  H- frame  was  raised  and  nailed  in 
place. 

The  shelf  was  then  adjusted  as  a  mantel.  Boards 
were  placed  as  side  panels.  The  open  space  be- 
tween shelf  and  ceiling  was  covered  with  light 
boards.  These  upper  boards  were  then  covered  with 
pasteboard,  tacked  on,  and  all  the  cracks  were  liber- 
ally pasted  over  with  cheesecloth.  The  window 
sash  from  the  Robinson  .Crusoe  pile  was  sawed  down 
into  a  piece  framing  three  square  openings,  and  this 
was  placed  immediately  below  the  mantel-shelf,  and 
over  the  apparent  fire  space. 

All  was  now  ready  for  the  paperhanger,  and  next 
morning,  in  papering  the  entire  room,  he  papered 
right  across  the  corner  upon  the  boarded  space  above 
the  mantel-shelf,  and  there  was  thus  gained  all  the 
effect  of  a  regularly  covered  wall.  The  panels  on 
either  side  of  the  fire  opening  were  painted  white. 
A  line  was  marked  to  indicate  the  hearth  limits,  and 
then,  to  secure  a  hearth-like  aspect,  melted  glue  was 

[375] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

spread  over  the  space  and,  before  it  dried,  fine  brown 
sand,  obtained  at  a  bird  store,  was  thickly  whisked 
over  it  with  a  broom.  There  was  thus  obtained  the 
appearance  of  a  hearth  of  sandstone. 

Blue  and  white  tile  were  fitted  into  the  space  in 
the  section  of  once-while  sash.  The  space  behind 
the  fire  opening  was  so  boarded  in  as  to  look  like  a 
fire-back,  and  this  apparent  fire-back  was  first 
painted  red  to  resemble  brick,  next  blackened  with 
stove  blacking  and  soot,  and  then,  for  a  parting 
touch,  whitened  with  gray  soot,  taken  from  the  range 
flue  and  thrown  against  it — indicating  intense  heat! 

Hickory  sticks  were  piled  within  the  fire  space 
upon  brass  andirons.  The  mantel-shelf  was  given 
a  few  old  pewter  tankards  to  hold.  A  picture  was 
placed  on  the  apparent  chimney-breast.  And  when 
a  plate-rail  was  made  to  take  in  the  corner  fireplace 
in  its  course  around  the  walls,  the  status  of  that  fire- 
place as  a  fundamental  part  of  the  room  was  forever 
established. 

And,  when  all  was  done,<  it  looked  like  a  simple, 
capable,  well-proportioned  fireplace;  and  never  was 
there  a  single  visitor  who  doubted  that  it  was  real 
and  had  always  been  there. 

It  was  also  in  that  house  that  a  problem  in  regard 
to  lighting  apparatus  presented  itself.  In  a  promi- 

[376] 


MAKESHIFTS 

nent  place  was  a  chandelier  of  fairly  good  shape,  ex- 
cept as  to  the  four  arms  and  the  globes.  To  remedy 
this,  a  hint  from  an  old  church  was  acted  upon. 
The  tips  and  the  globes  were  taken  off,  and  four 
straight  white  porcelain  candles,  of  the  sort  made  to 
allow  the  gas  to  pass  through  them  and  burn  at  the 
tops,  were  put  on.  They  looked  precisely  like  four 
wax  candles.  Thus  was  secured  a  good-looking 
chandelier  of  candles,  with  the  light  of  gas. 

Since  coming  to  the  old  inn  we  have  had  various 
opportunities  to  use  makeshifts,  and  quite  a  number 
of  things  jaave  been  adapted  to  some  use  more  or  less 
different  from  their  original  one. 

A  bejlows  possessed  the  advantages  of  age  and 
shape,  but  that  of  usefulness  was  rather  diminished 
by  its  being  without  a  brass  tip.  But  how  easily 
the  lack  was  remedied  by  using  the  nozzle  of  a  piece 
of  worn-out  hose ! 

Two  of  the  wooden  doors  beside  the  eight-foot 
fireplace  were  without  handles;  so,  upon  one  was 
placed  an  ancient  wrought-iron  latch,  found  in  the 
garret  of  a  house  built  by  Louis  the  Eleventh;  and, 
from  the  other  door,  there  now  faces  out,  as  a  handle, 
the  wrought-iron  head  of  a  lion,  made  for  the  end  of 
a  water  pipe  in  an  ancient  garden.  For  fireplace 
woodboxes  old  kettles  of  iron  or  of  brass  are  used. 

[377] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

The  porch  at  the  side  of  the  house  was  bare  of 
railing  or  banister.  Two  long  straight-backed  set- 
tees from  an  old  ball  room  were  fitted  and  fastened 
there,  and  at  once  there  was  not  only  a  railing  but 
an  attractive  set  of  seats  from  which  to  view  the  or- 
chard, the  trees  and  the  hills. 

The  kitchen  was  rather  short  of  cupboards,  and,  to 
supply  what  was  needed,  an  old-fashioned  secretary 
was  set  up  in  a  corner,  with  drawers  below  and  doors 
above.  The  shelf  where  the  writing-slab  folds  back 
upon  itself  gives  no  suggestion  of  being  a  desk  in  its 
kitchen  surroundings;  it  is  merely  a  convenient  nar- 
row shelf,  midway  up  the  side  of  the  cupboard. 
There  were  no  handles  on  the  piece  when  it  came  to 
us,  and  we  put  on  handles  of  white  porcelain.  It 
now  looks  precisely  like  a  capable  kitchen  cupboard, 
and  is  eminently  useful. 

For  one  of  the  upstairs  rooms,  an  old  cupboard, 
tall  and  of  severe  plainness  of  aspect,  was  made  into 
an  attractive  wardrobe  by  the  use  of  brass  knobs  for 
handles,  and  some  white  paint.  In  this  same  room 
stands  a  mahogany  dressing-table,  with  the  old 
glass  whose  setting  of  little  drawers  and  swivel 
posts  fitted  the  mirror  so  opportunely  ,  Instead  of 
placing  the  glass  on  top  of  a  chest  of  drawers  or  on  a 
muslin-covered  dressing-table,  a  plain  mahogany  ta- 

[378] 


MAKESHIFTS 

ble  was  used,  and  a  complete  article  of  furniture  in 
mahogany  was  thus  formed. 

A  most  successful  adaptation  in  silver  is  owned  by 
a  friend  in  the  shape  of  two  fern-dishes,  four-footed, 
oval,  of  silver,  and  of  old-fashioned  workmanship, 
with  a  two-inch  openwork  rail.  He  showed  a  sol- 
dered hole  in  the  bottom  of  each  dish.  "Yes;  old 
cruet-stands.  I  had  the  handles  sawed  off — and 
there  you  are !" 

- — It^is  impossible  to  offer  much  definite  advice  in 
regard  to  makeshifts,  for  it  is  seldom  that  the  cir- 
cumstances of  any  two  cases  are  precisely  the  same. 

Napoleon  once  wished  a  chemical  experiment 
made  immediately,  in  his  presence.  "But  I  have  no 
pestle  or  mortar!"  lamented  the  chemist.  Instantly 
Napoleon  was  in  a  heat  of  impatient  anger.  "Re- 
member, sir,"  he  said  sternly,  "that  every  table-top 
J5  a  mortar  and  every  chair-leg  a  pestle!" 


[•379] 


CHAPTER  XX 

FAKES:  HOW  TO  RECOGNIZE  AND  AVOID  THEM 

IT  was  long  ago  remarked,  sagely,  that  the  world 
is  given  to  lying,  and  it  is  not  charging  the  sellers 
of  old  furniture  with  more  than  the  average  of 
tergiversation  to  suggest  that  some  of  them  make 
misrepresentations;  although  many  a  piece  is  pre- 
cisely what  it  is  claimed  to  be,  and  many  another  is 
offered  honestly  upon  its  merits,  of  which  the  buyer 
must  judge. 

As  to  date  and  history,  there  are  peculiar  tempta- 
tions toward  misstatement.  Many  buyers  attach  so 
much  higher  a  value  to  an  article  with  a  history  that 
the  manufacture  of  imitations  with  fine  old  dates 
cut  on  them  is  quite  an  industry.  It  is  a  particularly 
barefaced  kind  of  imposition. 

And  yet,  dates  are  by  no  means  always  to  be 
doubted.  Sewall,  he  of  diary  fame,  in  getting  a 

[380] 


FAKES:  HOW  TO  RECOGNIZE  THEM 

chest  for  each  of  his  children,  had  each  chest  marked 
with  the  date  of  the  youthful  owner's  birth. 

In  learning  to  discriminate  between  the  genuine 
and  the  imitation  the  old-furniture  collector  comes 
to  see  that  there  is  much  to  consider  and  that  con- 
stant watchfulness  is  necessary. 

Here  is  a  rule  which,  in  buying,  gives  a  sense  of 
security.  It  is: — If  less  is  paid  for  an  antique  than 
it  could  be  made  for,  it  must  needs  be  genuine. 

But,  after  the  buyer  is  satisfied  as  to  the  age,  he 
may  very  properly  pay  much  more  than  the  cost  of 
making,  on  account  of  considerations  of  rarity  or 
shape. 

The  danger  of  being  imposed  upon  is  further  min- 
imized by  buying  articles  that  have  not  been  re- 
stored. It  is  safer  to  buy  them  worn  and  unre- 
paired, and  to  have  the  mending  and  polishing  done 
afterward. 

Entering,  one  day,  an  antique  shop  in  an  old 
Massachusetts  town,  we  were  told  by  the  clerk  that 
the  proprietor  was  in  the  workroom  behind.  But 
it  proved  to  be  an  inopportune  time,  and  he  was  dis- 
tinctly embarrassed,  for  he  was  putting  the  finishing 
touches  to  a  fine  Chippendale  chair.  He  grinned 
with  a  sort  of  sheepish  defiance,  and  said:  "At  any 
rate,  I  made  it  out  of  the  wood  of  an  old  tree,  and  so 

[381] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

it  will  really  be  an  old  chair.  And  I  '11  stain  it  to 
look  like  mahogany !" 

An  acquaintance,  who  possesses  and  highly  prizes 
a  supposedly  ancient  Chippendale  of  beautiful  de- 
sign, has  not  noticed,  or  at  least  has  not  drawn  a 
deduction  from  the  notice,  that  there  is  yellow  in  the 
gleam  of  the  wood  at  the  edges  qf  the  arms,  where 
touching  and  handling  have  already  begun  to  wear 
away  the  polish  and  the  artificial  stain.  The  chair 
was  bought  at  the  sale  of  some  studio  effects,  but  the 
buyer  should  not  only  have  observed  that  the  wood 
was  not  so  heavy  as  good  mahogany  ought  to  be,  but 
ought  to  have  been  suspicious  of  the  deep  red  color, 
for  it  pointed  infallibly  to  imitation  or  at  least  to 
mahogany  ill-treated. 

With  oak,  deceit  is  often  attempted.  From  two 
hundred  to  three  hundred  years  ago,  oak  was  what 
was  most  commonly  used  for  furniture ;  but,  of  that 
early  period,  it  is  seldom  that  a  veritable  piece  is 
found,  outside  of  museums;  hence  the  temptation  to 
counterfeit. 

There  are  various  methods  of  darkening  new  oak 
to  the  color  and  appearance  of  old ;  a  curious  one  is  to 
use  a  wash  of  old  iron  in  hot  vinegar,  to  give  the  req- 
uisite hue,  before  the  piece  is  polished;  or  acids  and 
stains  and  fumes  may  lend  their  aid.  Another 

[382] 


Empire  Console,  bought  in  1907,  in  New  Jersey,  for  one  dollar 


Low-boy  of  1750,  with  Cabriole  Legs  and  Original  Brasses,   from  a  cellar 
in  Connecticut 


FAKES:  HOW  TO  RECOGNIZE  THEM 

method  is  to  coat  new-made  oak  furniture  with 
paint,  and  then  remove  the  paint,  in  patches, 
with  potash.  And,  for  the  worm-holes  that 
are  so  often  found  in  the  genuine  articles,  of 
different  woods,  they  are  looked  upon  by  many  as 
such  indubitable  signs  of  age  that,  to  meet  the 
demand,  they  are  sometimes  put  into  new  wood, 
one  method  of  perforation  being  with  very  fine 
drills. 

An  acquaintance  called  one  evening  to  inquire 
what  we  did  to  our  old  chairs  and  things  when  they 
had  worm-holes,  and  he  explained  that  he  had  ac- 
quired an  old  worm-eaten  desk  upon  which  he 
wished  to  apply  the  remedy  immediately.  We  tried 
to  laugh  a  little  at  the  enthusiasm  which  would  not 
permit  another  night  of  life  to  worms  which  had 
been  at  work  for  decades,  but  the  inquirer  was  a  new 
and  very  ardent  collector. 

We  told  him  to  scrape,  where  the  worm-holes  were, 
to  the  bare  wood,  and  with  a  brush  dose  all  the  holes 
with  corrosive  sublimate.  We  also  suggested  that 
where  fuzz  showed  at  a  worm-hole  a  thin  wire  would 
sometimes  drag  out  the  worker.  Being  a  doctor,  he 
got  corrosive  sublimate  without  difficulty,  and  next 
day  we  went  over  to  see  his  prize. 

The  desk  was  of  shapely  Empire  design,  but  the 

1385] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

brasses  were  oval  plates  that  did  not  belong  with  it. 
However,  new  brasses  are  often  put  on  old  pieces. 
But  the  thing  looked  wrong.  The  drawers,  pulled 
out,  showed  great  spills  of  ink  and  general  duskiness. 
That  is  a  master-stroke  of  the  artful  reproducer. 
Spilled  ink  within  desk  drawers  is  looked  upon  as 
the  sign  and  symbol  of  extreme  age — it  is  offered  as 
proof  positive  of  antiquity — when,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  a  drawer  is  one  of  the  last  places  where  ink 
would  by  any  reasonable  chance  be  spilled.  The  cor- 
ners of  the  drawers  were  telltale.  The  dovetailing 
suggested  machinery,  being  as  even  as  the  corner  of 
a  starch-box. 

And,  somehow,  the  purchaser's  pride  seemed  to 
have  waned.  Then,  with  a  smile,  came  the  words: 
"That  sublimate  wash  is  a  good  thing.  I  think  the 
worms  are  pretty  dead,  now.  Here  Js  one  I  dug  out 
with  a  wire!"  And  he  displayed  an  infinitesimal 
bird-shot. 

The  blow  was  fatal  to  his  collecting.  Within  a 
week  his  Morris  chair  was  dragged  again  into  light 
and  he  planned  to  "do"  his  dining  room  in  Mission 
furniture.  His  dream  of  Empire  was  past. 

One  of  the  things  to  be  looked  upon  with  suspicion 
is  the  finding  of  an  old  document,  to  the  dealer's  in- 
tense surprise,  in  a  secret  drawer. 

[386] 


FAKES:  HOW  TO  RECOGNIZE  THEM 

Old  methods  of  dovetailing  are  seldom  followed 
in  reproductions.  Look  with  doubt  upon  bureaus 
and  desks  whose  brasses  point  to  previous  to.  1770 
but  whose  drawers  can  be  pushed  in  instead  of  being 
stopped  by  projecting  edges.  Preserve  a  cautious 
attitude  toward  pieces  which,  although  in  the  main 
new,  have  had  old  parts  grafted  on  them.  Orna- 
ments and  carvings,  in  relief,  may  be  reproductions 
made  by  filling  a  mould  with  mahogany  sawdust  and 
glue,  under  pressure ;  the  mixture  will  take  a  polish, 
but  has  not  the  texture  of  the  genuine  wood. 

But,  after  all,  buyers  deceive  themselves  more 
often  than  sellers  intentionally  deceive  them.  And 
the  collector  will  meet  with  quite  as  much  honest 
misrepresentation  as  dishonest — misrepresentation 
based  upon  mistaken  family  tradition  or  upon  ignor- 
ance of  styles. 

A  dear  old  lady  in  Massachusetts  prizes  among 
the  chief  of  her  household  possessions  an  ancestral 
bed  "in  which  Washington  once  slept."  She  is  ab- 
solutely sure  of  this,  and  it  would  be  needlessly  cruel 
to  say  anything  to  the  contrary  to  her;  but,  alas !  the 
combination  of  twisted  rope  and  pineapple  and  acan- 
thus leaf  points  to  a  period  when  Washington  was 
"dust  and  his  good  sword  rust."  It  may  be  added 
that  the  acanthus  leaf,  when  found  alone,  although 

[387] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

it  is  usually  associated  with  Empire,  is  an  old  orna- 
mentation as  well,  it  being  of  the  Renaissance. 

Family  tradition,  no  matter  how  honest,  how  sin- 
cere, must  always  be  received  with  caution.  Even 
an  unbroken  tradition  is  never  strong  as  to  precise 
dates.  Under  the  merging  influence  of  time,  cen- 
turies are  blended  and  decades  imperceptibly  melt 
into  one  another.  Many  a  piece  of  furniture  of  not 
more  than  one  hundred  years  in  age  is  held  by  family 
tradition  to  be  "over  two  hundred  and  fifty  years 
old." 

But  if,  for  example,  tradition  has  it,  unbrokenly, 
that  certain  furniture  was  part  of  a  wedding  outfit 
of  a  certain  couple,  then  the  chances  are  that  tradi- 
tion is  true,  and,  without  trusting  to  that  for  the 
date,  the  time  of  the  wedding  may  be  looked  up  in 
some  record  and  the  age  of  the  furniture  thus  fixed. 

A  friend  who  lives  in  a  charming  old  Italian  villa 
feels  no  doubt  that  the  furniture  is  of  the  period  of 
1702,  not  only  because  there  is  every  sign  of  age,  but 
because  tradition  has  it  that  the  furnishings  were 
part  of  the  original  furnishings  of  the  villa,  and  the 
records  declare  that  the  house  was  built  in  1702. 

More  than  anything  else,  a  collector  comes  to 
cultivate  plain  common-sense  in  examining  old  fur- 
niture; he  judges  largely,  of  course,  by  his  know- 

[388] 


FAKES:  HOW  TO  RECOGNIZE  THEM 

ledge  of  makes  and  styles,  but  he  also  weighs  not 
only  the  statements  of  the  would-be  seller,  whether 
he  be  a  professional  dealer  or  a  simple  householder, 
but  also  the  probabilities  of  correctness,  as  gathered 
from  the  seller's  personality,  manner,  and  surround- 
ings, and  the  likeliness  of  his  really  knowing  the  ac- 
tual truth.  And  as  experience  and  observation 
widen  there  comes  a  sort  of  intuition,  a  sixth  sense, 
upon  which  one  must  learn  to  rely. 

Too  much  credulity  and  too  great  a  readiness  to 
doubt  are  alike  to  be  avoided. 

When  your  old  brass  andirons  totter  and  fall 
apart  when  a  fire  is  built,  and  you  see  a  stream  of 
white  solder  on  the  hearth,  do  not  too  rashly  decide 
that  you  have  been  deceived,  for  many  a  pair  of  gen- 
uine old  andirons,  in  which  the  central  interior  rod 
has  been  worn  out  by  time,  has  been  repaired  with 
solder  instead  of  by  blacksmith's  work. 

A  genuine  letter  from  South  Carolina,  offering 
some  old  chairs  and  slender-legged  card-tables,  was 
shown  year  after  year  by  one  antique  dealer  to  ex- 
plain the  source  of  supply  of  a  line  of  old  pieces 
which  was  kept  constantly  replenished  from  the 
workshop.  The  glamour  of  that  letter  removed 
doubt  from  the  minds  of  a  long  series  of  purchasers 
of  "those  dear  little  Carolinian  tables  and  chairs." 

[389] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

Proprietors  of  the  elaborate  old-furniture  shops 
study  closely  the  pictures  of  furniture  in  the  various 
collections,  and  also  the  descriptions  given  in  books 
on  furniture. 

In  a  recent  book,  one  of  the  pictures  was  that  of  a 
beautiful  mirror  with  its  principal  ornament  missing. 
The  author  described  the  mirror  in  terms  of  high 
praise  and  suggested  that  the  missing  ornament  was 
probably  of  gilt  and  urn-shaped.  And  already  some 
of  the  large  shops  offer  a  "veritable  antique"  pre- 
cisely similar  to  that  picture  except  that  the  missing 
ornament,  richly  gilt  and  of  urn  shape,  is  trium- 
phantly in  place. 

There  are  many  Empire  chests  of  drawers  in  ex- 
istence that  are  spurious,  and  some  of  them  are  made 
ingeniously  by  splitting  Empire  bed-posts  and  using 
the  pieces  as  pilasters  on  the  front  corners  of  very 
plain  and  simple  chests  of  drawers.  As  many  as 
sixteen  pilasters  can  be  had  from  one  old  set  of  high 
posts. 

The  vaulting  ambition  to  deceive  sometimes  o'er- 
leaps  itself,  as  when  genuine  old  Windsor  chairs  of 
hickory  or  ash  are  taken  in  hand  and  masqueraded 
into  mahogany,  so  that  a  better  price  can  be  ob- 
tained. It  is  probably  safe  to  say  that  no  old  Wind- 
sor chair  was  ever  made  in  mahogany;  certainly,  if 

[390] 


FAKES:  HOW  TO  RECOGNIZE  THEM 

there  ever  were  any,  they  were  very  few;  mahogany 
was  never  deemed  a  good  wood  for  the  Windsor 
bendings. 

The  grain  of  different  woods  can  easily  be 
learned— at  least,  that  of  oak,  and  also  that  of  nut 
woods,  such  as  walnut.  These,  no  matter  how  they 
are  dyed  or  stained,  still  retain  some  characteristic 
which  should  never  allow  them  to  be  mistaken  for 
mahogany. 

A  pillar  which  shows  the  flowerlike  flames  of  ma- 
hogany is  necessarily  veneered,  and  the  line  where 
the  veneer  joins  can  be  found;  yet  many  a  prospec- 
tive purchaser  of  a  table  whose  pillar  shows  a  flam- 
ing glow  and  a  fine  pattern  in  the  grain  such  as  are 
found  only  in  quarter-sawed  wood,  is  assured  that  it 
is  solid  mahogany. 

Dutch  marquetry,  in  really  beautiful  pieces,  is  to 
a  considerable  extent  sold  nowadays;  and  more  than 
once  we  have  seen  it  described  as  "old"  Dutch  mar- 
quetry. Some  of  it  may  be  old,  for  there  was  a 
great  deal  of  fine  marquetry  made  in  the  old  days; 
but  in  the  Holland  workshops  marquetry  in  old  pat- 
terns is  now  turned  out  in  large  quantities.  Much 
of  it  is  highly  desirable  in  shape;  the  only  defect  is 
a  possible  tendency  not  to  stand  the  steam  heat  of 
American  houses,  there  being  a  great  number  of  lit- 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

tie  pieces  fastened  on  with  glue.  If  the  buyer  does 
not  look  for  age  and  history  and  association  there  is 
no  reason  why  it  should  not  be  bought. 

"Old  Dutch"  is  by  common  acceptation  supposed 
to  imply  the  Colonial  period  of  Stuyvesant  and  Van 
Twiller  and  other  Knickerbocker  worthies,  and  so 
one  is  apt  to  consider  "old  Dutch  silver"  to  be  quite 
antique.  There  is,  of  course,  genuine  old  Dutch  sil- 
ver still  obtainable ;  but  it  is  something  that  lends  it- 
self readily  to  reproduction;  and  the  market  for  it 
being  great,  and  purchasers  being  very  willing  to  be- 
lieve in  its  genuineness,  there  are,  for  example,  more 
veritable  old  Dutch  chatelaine  bag-clasps  for  sale  in 
New  York  than  all  the  ladies  of  Amsterdam  ever 
possessed.  An  officer  of  the  Dutch  army  who  knows 
a  great  deal  about  old  silver,  and  has  a  fine  collec- 
tion, especially  rich  in  the  quaint  silver  toys  now  so 
rare,  has  told  us  that  little  really  good  old  silver  is 
now  to  be  had  in  his  country,  and  that  the  making 
of  reproductions  is  a  recognized  industry  which  de- 
ceives only  the  stranger.  In  the  American  market 
a  piece  of  sixteenth  century  or  seventeenth  century 
Dutch  silver  is  most  probably  only  a  copy,  made  in 
Holland,  of  a  design  of  that  period. 

And  as  for  windmills  and  "Apostles"  upon  spoons 
— of  course,  there  are  originals,  but  such  things  grow 

[392] 


Little  Tables  of  Ancient  Make 


i  Tea-table  with  raised  rim  and  snake  feet.  2  Tilting  table  with  "fire-screen"  top.  3  Traded 
for  a  Brahma  hen.  4  Tilting  table  of  1825.  5  A  slender  candlestand  of  1770.  6  Heppelwhite 
work-table,  inlaid  in  lines 


FAKES:  HOW  TO  RECOGNIZE  THEM 

on  silverware  in  America  much  oftener  than  they  did 
long  ago  in  Germany  and  the  Netherlands. 

A  curious  industry,  which  was  never  intended  in 
its  early  days  to  possess  any  misleading  trait,  flour- 
ishes on  the  East  Side  of  New  York.  The  little 
shops  of  Russian  Jew  copperworkers  began  to  be 
known,  a  few  years  ago,  to  a  constantly  widening 
public.  The  little  dark  rooms,  where  handicrafts- 
men work  at  forges  just  as  their  forefathers  worked 
in  Russia,  began  to  be  visited  by  wondering  purchas- 
ers of  the  brasswork.  People  went  away,  telling  of 
their  prizes  in  "old  copper."  The  number  of  these 
shops  rapidly  increased.  The  dealers  soon  found 
that  Americans  wished  to  believe  that  what  they 
bought  was  old ;  that  visitors  must  have  the  ancient, 
"brought  from  Russia,"  with  some  far  distant  place 
of  manufacture  definitely  proved  by  a  hieroglyphical 
Hebrew  mark. 

It  is  really  admirable  work,  most  of  it,  in  samo- 
vars and  platters  and  candlesticks,  and  there  is  a 
small  proportion  of  the  really  old — but  if  you  have 
a  dealer's  confidence  he  will  tell  you  that  little  of 
this  really  old  goes  to  visiting  buyers  or  to  the  up- 
town shops  that  have  begun  to  handle  these  wares. 

When  a  public  exhibit  of  old  furniture  is  permitted 
to  give  incorrect  information,  it  is  peculiarly  un- 

[395] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

fortunate.  In  this  respect  Philadelphia  has  several 
sins  to  answer  for.  In  the  collection  of  the  oldest 
Philadelphia  library  is  a  grandfather's  clock  that  is 
said  to  have  been  the  property  of  Oliver  Cromwell. 
This  belief  is  based  upon  the  tradition  that  the  auc- 
tioneer who  sold  it,  a  half-century  after  Cromwell's 
death,  declared  that  it  had  once  been  the  Protector's. 
A  slight  enough  basis,  this,  for  the  perpetuation  of 
such  a  claim!  Surely,  never  before  or  since  was 
auctioneer's  careless  boast  so  honored ! 

One  feels  at  once  a  sense  of  annoyance  and  incre- 
dulity, and  then  wonders  if  there  is  no  way  of  set- 
tling such  a  question.  And  there  is.  For  the  name 
of  the  maker  of  the  clock  is  upon  it,  and,  from  the 
records  of  the  association  of  clockmakers  it  is  learned 
that  he  did  not  finish  his  apprenticeship  and  reach 
the  dignity  of  maker  until  after  Cromwell's  death. 

In  examining  this  or  other  clocks,  it  is  well  to  re- 
member that  long  pendulums  were  not  applied  to 
clocks  until  nearly  1660,  that  a  paper  calling  atten- 
tion to  an  improved  pendulum  was  read  before  the 
Royal  Society  ten  years  later,  and  that  not  until 
about  1680  did  pendulums  begin  to  be  commonly 
made  in  London.  Short  pendulums  came  in  at  a 
still  later  day. 

In  the  same  collection  is  a  fine  old  desk,  once  Wil- 

1396] 


FAKES:  HOW  TO  RECOGNIZE  THEM 

liam  Perm's.  It  is  genuine;  but  incorrect  restora- 
tion put  upon  it  the  bonnet-top  of  a  later  period,  and 
not  until  after  many  years  of  exhibition,  and  of  giv- 
ing a  wrong  impression  of  style,  did  the  manage- 
ment, very  recently,  have  the  incorrect  top  taken  off. 

In  the  extremely  valuable  Girard  collection  is  a 
desk,  with  a  music-box  concealed  in  its  top,  upon 
which  one  plainly  reads  the  date,  "1795."  But  it 
is  of  a  style  not  made  until  into  the  iSoo's,  and  the 
observer  is  at  once  unsettled  and  disturbed.  It  is 
only  with  difficulty,  the  desk  being  in  the  centre  of  a 
railed-off  section,  that  some  small  lettering  can  be 
made  out  to  the  effect  that  it  is  the  music  that  is  of 
the  date  of  1 795 ! 

Philadelphia  is  not  the  only  place  to  show  such 
mistakes  of  knowledge  or  judgment,  for  in  the  col- 
lection at  Mount  Vernon  a  beautiful  chair  of  Louis 
the  Sixteenth  is  marked  as  being  pi  the  seventeenth 
century. 

The  collector,  seeking  to  ada  to  his  own  treasures, 
must  be  watchful  in  regard  to  "improved"  pieces. 
The  improvements  may  be  highly  admirable,  but, 
even  if  so,  he  should  see  that  no  wrong  impression  of 
date  is  given  by  them  and  that  they  are  not  permitted 
to  enhance  the  price  unduly.  "All  things  are  not 
what  they  seern;  skim-milk  masquerades  as  cream;" 

[3971 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

and  so  fine  inlays  are  set  deceptively  into  otherwise 
plain  fronts,  and  homely  board  doors  are  replaced  by 
doors  of  latticed  glass,  and  ormolu  mounts  give  dis- 
tinction to  the  undistinguished,  and  gorgeous  handles 
supersede  wooden  knobs,  and  cabrioles  take  the  place 
of  straight  legs  upon  many  a  chair  and  secretary — 
all  to  the  confusion  of  the  un watchful. 


[396) 


CHAPTER  XXI 

FINDS  IN   UNEXPECTED  PLACES 

MANY  has  been  the  odd  bit  of  information 
given  by  the  old  Austrian,  he  who  fought 
at  Solferino,  but  none  so  strange  as  what 
came  one  day  in  response  to  a  comment  that  he  never 
handled  silver. 

He  could  not  afford  it,  it  would  lock  up  too  much 
money,  he  said ;  and  then  an  oddly  benign  look  came 
into  his  eyes.  "I  will  tell  you  where  to  go" ;  and  he 
gave  an  address  in  the  heart  of  the  busiest  section  of 
the  East  Side,  a  part  of  New  York  where  an  impor- 
tant shop  of  that  kind  would  not  be  looked  for.  It 
was,  he  added,  little  known  as  a  silver  headquarters, 
except  to  the  trade. 

The  place  proved  to  be  a  sort  of  clearing  house  for 
silver  for  the  pawnshops  of  New  York.  In  a  long 
glass  case  were  bundles  upon  bundles  of  thin  old 
spoons  and  rat-tailed  spoons,  and  queer  punch  la- 

[399] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

dies  and  huge  foreign  forks.  On  the  wall,  behind 
glass  doors,  were  shelves  upon  which  larger  pieces 
were  stored.  And  there,  in  a  row,  were  four  pieces 
of  early  Georgian  silver,  with  ebony  handles. 

They  were  fine  and  low,  and  plain  except  for  a 
band  of  little  oval  panels  in  relief.  Every  line  in 
them  was  a  delight.  They  showed  a  row  of  hall- 
marks sufficient  to  fascinate  any  collector. 

We  were  offered  them  by  weight — Georgian  silver 
by  weight! — and  for  less  than  silverware  of  modern 
workmanship  would  command  on  Broadway;  only 
eighty-five  dollars.  The  hall-marks  were  copied  for 
the  pleasure  of  looking  them  up  in  Cripps;  but  it 
was  necessary  to  think  over  the  price  a  little,  and 
they  were  gone  on  our  return.  Old  treasure  must  be 
snapped  at  in  such  a  place;  not  dawdled  over  as 
when  one  buys  in  fine  surroundings  at  fine  prices. 

The  clerk  seemed  to  share  our  disappointment. 
Most  of  their  customers,  he  said,  were  dealers.  He 
had  sold  the  Georgian  silver  to  a  little  shop  off  Fifth 
Avenue. 

He  also  added  that  his  stock  was  low — this  in 
spite  of  full  cases! — for  eight  thousand  dollars' 
worth  of  old  silver  had  just  been  sent  to  New  Or- 
leans to  stock  up  the  antique  shops  for  the  Mardi 
Gras  crowds  of  strangers. 

[400] 


FINDS  IN  UNEXPECTED  PLACES 

Delicious,  this !  and  explanatory  too,  for  we  have 
seen  "old  New  Orleans  silver"  which  the  owners 
had  purchased  in  that  city  and  "knew  to  be  French" 
in  spite  of  hall-marks  which  they  ought  to  have 
known  were  English. 

Always  is  the  pleasure  of  a  find  increased  by  the 
fillip  of  unanticipation.  As  when  we  found,  one 
day,  quite  by  accident,  that  in  another  part  of  the 
East  Side  is  located  a  company  that  makes  a  spe- 
cialty of  tearing  down  old  buildings,  and  offers  for 
sale  wreckage  of  every  conceivable  kind,  including — 
what  a  chance  for  the  possessor  of  some  old  house 
which  needs  restoration! — mantels  and  chimney- 
pieces,  fluted  pillars,  mahogany  doors,  and  fan- 
lights, 

One  day,  the  janitor  of  our  apartment  house, 
mending  something  about  the  lock  of  an  inside  room, 
remarked  that  we  seemed  to  have  considerable  old- 
time  furniture.  "Down  in  the  basement,"  he  went 
on,  "there  is  an  old-fashioned  looking  table  that  my 
wife  wants  me  to  split  up  and  throw  in  the  furnace. 
It 's  only  in  the  way.  I  don't  know  anything  about 
it,  but  it  has  lion's  feet  and  eagle's  wings.  I  '11  sell 
it  to  you  for  a  dollar  if  you  want  it." 

This  was  one  of  those  chances  that  are  not  to  be 
neglected.  Of  course,  the  table  might  be  worth 

[401] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

nothing  at  all  except  for  its  otherwise  predestined 
fate  of  firewood;  but  almost  anything  in  furniture 
is  worth  the  chance  of  a  dollar. 

"I  '11  take  it;  just  fetch  it  up,  please." 
And  in  a  few  minutes  it  was  in  the  room;  an  Em- 
pire table,  with  a  swing-and-fold  top  thirty-six 
inches  by  thirty-six,  and  with  splendid  claw  feet  and 
wings.  It  is  of  superb  San  Domingo,  with  an  up- 
right pillar  showing  remarkable  fire  and  glow.  And 
offered  and  bought  and  delivered  for  just  one  dollar ! 
It  needed  somewhat  of  polishing — but  what  of  that ! 
Since  then,  we  have  been  offered  fifty  dollars  for  it, 
by  a  dealer  who  held  the  money  temptingly.  But 
we  considered  that,  although  we  might  have  other 
opportunities  of  getting  fifty  dollars,  we  might  never 
again  have  the  chance  of  getting  such  a  superb  old 
table  in  the  very  heart  of  New  York  City. 

A  friend  had  often  heard  her  mother  tell,  with  re- 
gret, of  old  pieces  of  furniture  which  had  been  prac- 
tically or  literally  given  away,  many  years  before, 
and  at  length  she  began  to  think  seriously  of  it  all. 
She  learned  into  what  household  most  of  the  things 
had  gone;  she  knew  that  they  went  not  as  precious 
bits  but  as  cast-offs;  and,  visiting  there,  she  learned 
that  the  people  would  be  keenly  gratified  to  receive 
new  pieces  of  modern  make  in  place  of  the  now  bat- 

[402] 


FINDS  IN  UNEXPECTED  PLACES 

tered  antiques.  An  arrangement  was  thereupon 
made,  highly  satisfactory  to  both ! 

That  was  in  Ohio.  Now,  here  is  an  incident  from 
New  York.  The  granddaughter  of  one  of  the  early 
vice-presidents  felt  a  strong  desire  to  recover  some  of 
the  ancient  family  furniture,  which,  before  she  was 
born,  had  been  scattered  at  a  public  sale,  on  the  re- 
moval of  her  grandfather  from  one  city  to  another. 
She  made  careful  inquiry  but  could  only  find  trace 
of  a  certain  set  of  three  tables,  which  had  been  pur- 
chased by  a  family  whose  address  she  learned. 
She  went  there,  although  it  involved  something  of  a 
journey.  She  found  the  descendant  of  the  pur- 
chaser using  the  tables.  The  case  was  explained; 
the  granddaughter  said  that  she  would  dearly  like  to 
possess  some  of  the  furniture  which  had  belonged  to 
her  distinguished  ancestor,  but  that  she  did  not  wish, 
of  course,  to  take  away  anything  which  the  present 
possessor  particularly  prized.  Whereupon  the  three 
tables  were  sold  to  her,  with  ready  cheerfulness,  for 
precisely  the  sum  which,  according  to  an  old  family 
record,  had  been  paid  for  them  so  long  before. 

The  finding  of  brass  or  iron  treasure  on  a  farm 
junk  pile,  or  forgotten  upon  a  high  ledge  in  a  barn, 
can  scarcely  be  classed  among  the  unexpected,  for 
the  experienced  collector  comes  to  consider  such 

[4031 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

places  as  natural  nooks  for  forgotten  door-handles, 
cranes,  and  odds  and  ends. 

But  when  a  friend  of  ours,  in  Ohio,  discovered  a 
fine  bit  of  pewter,  a  platter,  of  English  make,  so  lit- 
tle thought  of  that  it  had  become  the  dinner  dish  of 
a  wheezy  pug,  that  may  fairly  be  ranked  among  the 
unexpected. 

We  ourselves  had  an  interesting  experience  along 
to  some  extent  similar  lines.  An  ancient  handi- 
craftsman, in  ancient  Padua,  was  eating  his  dinner, 
in  a  corner  of  his  very  dark  little  shop,  from  a  really 
good  pewter  plate  with  a  beaded  edge.  He  wanted 
but  a  trifle  for  it,  and  it  became  ours,  and  is  one  of 
the  pieces  of  pewter  upon  the  long  shelf  above  the 
eight-foot  fireplace,  maintaining  its  claim  to  distinc- 
tion as  a  piece  of  old  Italian  make  and  as  coming 
direct  to  our  hands  from  the  hands  of  an  old  man  in 
one  of  the  most  fascinating  of  all  cities. 

One  of  the  strangest  experiences  was  that  of  a 
friend  in  a  charming  region  of  New  York  State. 

Upon  inheriting  a  beautiful  old  house,  long  ante- 
dating the  Revolution,  he  looked  through  it,  and, 
getting  to  the  garret,  saw  that  it  was  pretty  well 
filled  with  apparent  rubbish  which  he  ordered  to  be 
cleaned  out.  He  had  not,  at  that  time,  acquired  a 
taste  for  antique  shapes;  he  was,  on  the  contrary, 

[404] 


FINDS  IN  UNEXPECTED  PLACES 

well  satisfied  with  what  is  colloquially  known,  in 
New  York  City,  as  the  style  of  Louis  Fourteenth 
Street. 

His  old  servant,  inherited  with  the  estate,,  and 
holding  great  respect  for  the  family  and  its  tradi- 
tions, respectfully  hinted  that  there  were  old  pieces 
of  furniture  among  the  apparent  trash.  But  the 
new  owner  was  indifferently  inexorable,  and  the  gar- 
ret was  emptied. 

But  mark  the  sequel.  Years  passed.  The  liking 
for  the  antique  came  upon  our  friend.  He  saw  a 
great  light,  so  to  speak.  He  loathed  what  he  had 
once  loved  and  loved  that  to  which  he  had  once  been 
indifferent.  He  determined  to  set  about  making  his 
home  the  visible  sign  of  the  inward  grace  that  had 
newly  come  to  him.  And  he  lamented  in  sackcloth 
and  ashes  that  the  family  pieces  he  had  once  had  in 
his  very  possession  were  no  longer  there  to  form  the 
nucleus  of  the  collection  that  he  was  now  bent  upon 
securing. 

The  faithful  old  servitor  heard  his  master  express- 
ing vain  regrets.  His  dark  face  glowed  with  happi- 
ness. His  old  eyes  sparkled.  He  led  his  wonder- 
ing employer  to  the  loft  above  the  wood-house,  and 
there  most  of  the  treasures  still  were!  Moth  and 
rust  had  not  corrupted  nor  had  thieves  stolen.  They 

[405] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

had  been  kept  all  those  years,  through  the  dumb 
faithfulness  of  the  old  servant.  And  the  tale  has 
been  told  us  in  that  very  house,  and  in  the  midst  of 
the  things  thus  strangely  preserved. 

An  acquaintance  owns  a  fine  old  pair  of  brass  and- 
irons; and  she  loves  to  tell  how  she  became  the  pos- 
sessor of  them.  She  had,  for  years,  longed  to  visit 
her  early  home  in  the  Western  Reserve,  and  at 
length  was  able  to  do  so.  She  went  to  the  old  house ; 
she  roamed  through  the  rooms  which  she  had  not 
seen  for  thirty  years  but  which  were  still  strongly 
fixed  in  her  memory.  At  night,  she  sat  in  front  of 
where  a  fireplace  had  been — where,  indeed,  it  still 
was,  but  boarded  in  with  a  heavy  frame. 

She  told  of  a  splendid  pair  of  andirons,  "rights 
and  lefts,"  of  brass,  which  had  been  used  in  that 
fireplace  in  her  girlhood.  They  had  gone,  so  the 
people  told  her;  everything  of  that  sort  had  been 
cleared  away  long  ago.  Yes ;  it  was  too  bad ;  for  if 
they  had  known  that  anybody  cared  for  that  sort  of 
thing — But  everything  had  gone.  And,  to  give  ocu- 
lar evidence  of  the  changed  aspect  of  the  denuded 
fireplace,  the  heavy  frame  was  moved  aside — and 
there,  seeing  the  light  of  day  for  the  first  time  in  a 
quarter  of  a  century,  were  the  andirons ! 

A  friend — the  same  one  that  took  the  pewter  plat- 


FINDS  IN  UNEXPECTED  PLACES 

ter  from  the  lunching  dog — thought  that  she  would 
like  to  secure  some  old  sporting  prints  from  an  aunt 
in  the  country.  So  thitherward  she  went,  armed 
with  a  bundle  of  towels  of  fine  linen  on  the  chance 
that  a  trade  might  be  welcome. 

But,  alas!  the  prints  had  disappeared  years  ago. 
The  original  frames  had  been  preserved,  but  not  the 
pictures.  Within  the  frame  had  been  placed  prize 
oleographs  from  one  of  the  popular  religious  week- 
lies. 

She  was  disappointed;  but  she  gave  the  linen 
towels,  just  the  same,  mentioning,  with  a  laugh,  to 
her  aunt,  what  she  had  had  in  mind  to  propose.  The* 
aunt  was  full  of  regrets.  She  was  so  sorry  that  the 
pictures  had  gone.  She  could  not  even  remember 
what  had  been  done  with  them.  But  she  insisted 
that  her  niece  should  at  least  take  the  frames !  This 
was  embarrassing,  but  unavoidable;  and  then,  at 
home,  the  sporting  prints  were  found,  for  they  had 
never  been  removed  and  were  merely  covered  by  the 
oleographs ! 

We  know  of  a  fine  old  silver  spoon  which  was  dug 
up,  one  day,  in  a  garden  patch!  And,  more  unex- 
pected than  that,  was  the  discovery  by  ourselves,  one 
day  in  a  boarding  house  in  New  York,  of  a  charming 
Sheraton  table.  We  were  placed,  on  entering  the 
•[407] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

dining  room,  at  a  little  individual  table  at  one  side, 
where  were  the  only  unoccupied  seats.  The  table  was 
covered  with  a  table-cloth  which  hung  nearly  to  the 
floor.  Something  about  the  oval  shape,  and  the  pro- 
portions of  the  top,  attracted  us;  and  one  of  us 
reached  under  and  felt  the  leg.  It  was  slender  and 
square  and  delicately  grooved !  After  dinner,  an  ex- 
amination was  made,  and  the  table  was  found  to  be 
a  delightful  example  of  old-fashioned  Sheraton.  Its 
oval  shape  came  from  two  tiny  leaves.  A  drawer, 
with  original  brasses,  was  at  either  end.  The  pro- 
prietor of  the  house  had  no  idea  that  the  table  was 
anything  more  than  ordinary,  and  it  had  been  picked 
up  just  to  be  used  as  a  handy  table  for  a  small  space. 

"What  do  you  think  Mrs.  W —  has  in  the  storage 
bin  in  the  cellar!"  exclaimed  our  across-the-hall 
neighbor,  one  day,  in  New  York.  "She  's  got  a  sil- 
ver salver  as  large  as  a  table-top !" 

Having  an  acquaintance  with  Mrs.  W — ,  we 
spoke  of  the  tray,  mentioning  our  interest  in  old- 
fashioned  things. 

It  was  an  heirloom;  almost  all  that  had  been 
saved  from  the  dispersion  of  the  family  effects  at  her 
girlhood  home  in  Tennessee.  It  was  a  salver  of 
enormous  size;  a  really  superb  piece.  It  was  of 
Sheffield  plate,  with  a  border  of  grapevine  leaves, 


An  eighteenth-century,  brick-paved,  wainscoted  hall,  showing  a  Windsor 
chair  with  a  desk  arm 


"Crosswise  on  the  wagon  was  an  ancient  claw-foot  sofa" 


FINDS  IN  UNEXPECTED  PLACES 

and  stood  on  tiny  low  feet,  just  enough  to  raise  it 
from  the  table-top  or  sideboard  to  avoid  marking  the 
woodwork  if  a  hot  dish  or  teapot  were  upon  it.  A 
strange  thing,  and  a  strange  history,  for  the  cellar  of 
a  New  York  apartment  house! 

In  a  Western  city,  one  Sunday  afternoon,  passing 
the  shop  of  a  carpenter,  a  glimpse  was  accidentally 
caught  of  what  seemed  to  be  a  fine  old  table.  It 
was  small,  but  the  corner  of  it  that  was  visible 
pointed  to  age  and  workmanship.  It  being  Sunday, 
no  one  was  there;  but  a  visit  the  next  day  showed 
that  the  table  was  indeed  old,  and  it  now  has  a  place 
among  our  honored  belongings,  after  being  discov- 
ered by  such  a  mere  chance  in  a  Western  carpenter 
shop,  where  it  would  certainly  not  have  been  looked 
for. 

And  this  is  remindful  of  an  important  hint;  some- 
thing that  all  good  collectors  ought  to  know.  That 
is,  that  the  shop  of  the  village  undertaker,  in  many 
an  Eastern  town,  and  especially  where  the  under- 
taker is  a  cabinet-maker  as  well,  is  a  place  never  to 
be  neglected  in  a  local  search. 

It  comes  about  most  naturally.  Often,  a  death 
means  the  breaking  up  of  a  household  and  the  dis- 
persion of  the  household  belongings.  And  in  such 
a  case,  who  but  the  undertaker  has  the  first  chance ! 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

And  too,  when  there  is  but  little  ready  money,  which 
is  often  the  case  where  there  has  been  a  death  in  a 
village  family,  the  undertaker  is  willing  to  take  his 
pay  in  furniture.  Especially,  as  we  have  noted,  if 
he  be  a  cabinet-maker  as  well ! 

A  friend,  admiring  the  great  sofa  that  we  obtained 
in  a  Pennsylvania  town,  begged  us  to  accompany 
him  on  a  trip  there.  He  wanted  a  sofa,  too.  We 
said  that  the  person  from  whom  we  had  bought  ours 
was  selling  nothing  more,  and  that,  anyhow,  he  had 
no  other  large  sofa.  But  our  friend  was  persistent. 
In  such  a  town  as  we  described,  so  he  declared,  there 
must  be  another  fine  sofa  ready  to  be  secured !  And, 
unwilling  to  cool  such  enthusiastic  faith,  we  went 
with  him. 

This  time,  we  led  the  way  to  the  undertaker,  for 
in  other  towns  we  had  come  to  know  the  invaluable 
secret  of  what  a  country  undertaker  is  apt  to  have. 

Nor  did  he  disappoint  us.  He  cogitated.  He 
grew  grave.  There  had  been  a  death,  he  said,  in  his 
solemn  voice;  and  if  we  would  but  wait  an  hour  till 
he  could  see —  ?  There  was  certainly  a  sofa — 
"And  the  bereaved"  (he  mumbled,  respectfully,  as 
he  spoke  this  last  word)  "might  possibly — "  And 
shortly  we  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  him  set  out. 

Within  the  hour  he  returned.  His  progress  up  the 

[412] 


FINDS  IN  UNEXPECTED  PLACES 

village  street  had  all  the  effect  of  a  triumph.  It  was 
raining,  but  he  heeded  not.  He  had  often  driven  in 
the  rain.  His  long  and  ancient  coat,  folded  dis- 
creetly about  him  but  drooping  from  the  wet,  his 
rusty,  high  hat,  his  long  black  wagon  and  his  se- 
dately stepping  old  black  horse,  all  gave  dignity  and 
solemnity  to  his  progress. 

And  placed  crosswise  on  the  wagon,  and  reaching 
far  out  on  either  side,  was  an  ancient  claw-foot  sofa, 
proudly  sweeping  the  width  of  the  narrow  street ! 


CHAPTER  XXII 

THE  END  OF  IT  ALL 

f  I  ^HE  smack  of  age,  the  relish  of  the  saltness  of 
time;  it  is  this  which  is  so  delightfully  asso- 
JL  ciated  with  the  old.  The  love  for  things  of 
the  past  has  in  all  ages  exerted  its  appeal ;  the  fasci- 
nation of  the  old  is  perennial  and  imperishable.  The 
attraction  of  the  "fine  last-century  face"  appealed  to 
Charles  Lamb,  just  as  things  of  his  own  time  appeal 
to  us.  Savage  old  Bajazet  loved,  in  his  moments 
of  relaxation,  to  examine  tapestry  depicting  ancient 
history.  Generals,  statesmen,  artists,  the  average 
man  and  the  average  woman,  all  alike  are  suscepti- 
ble to  the  allurement  of  bygone  days.  And  in  no 
respect  is  a  love  for  things  of  the  past  more  justified 
than  in  the  desire  to  possess  stately  and  beautiful 
and  charming  furniture  of  the  olden,  long-past  time. 

[4H] 


THE  END  OF  IT  ALL 

Stately  and  beautiful  and  charming — in  this  lies 
the  important  point.  The  furniture  which  one  is  to 
gather  should  have  grace  or  beauty  or  dignity,  or  all 
three.  Age  alone  is  always  sufficient  to  arouse  in- 
terest; but  age  alone  is  not  enough  to  justify  perma- 
nent possession.  Naturally,  the  older  a  piece  is,  the 
less  does  it  positively  demand  other  attractions. 
Henry  James  has  somewhere  remarked  that  the  very 
old  can  never  look  quite  vulgar.  Yet  Methuselah 
pieces,  notable  for  years  alone  and  with  no  other 
justification  for  being,  should  be  avoided. 

Gather  things  which  it  will  be  a  restful  delight  to 
look  upon.  Gather,  too,  for  use.  Each  article  of 
furniture  should  be  both  charming  and  indispens- 
able. And,  so  far  as  possible,  strive  for  harmony  of 
effect.  Let  each  piece  be  in  the  fit  and  proper  place 
to  add  to  the  general  impression. 

It  is  upon  the  heedful  observance  of  points  such  as 
these;  points  which  seem  to  be  of  self-evident  im- 
portance but  which  are  far  too  often  unheeded;  that 
the  good  appearance  of  a  home  depends. 

And  do  not  overload.  If  you  can  properly  use 
but  a  single  sofa,  do  not  get  two,  unless  the  second 
one  is  a  rarer  prize  and  you  are  to  discard  the  first. 
For  you  are  furnishing  a  home  with  furniture  to  live 
with;  you  are  not  filling  a  museum,  to  be  walked 

[415] 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  COLONIAL 

through  with  perfunctory  stares.  The  attainment 
of  sweetness,  charm,  propriety,  proportion,  ease, 
happiness — that  is  what  old  furniture  is  for! 

We  speak  only  as  having  attempted,  as  knowing 
that  others  can  easily  do  all  and  more  than  all  that 
we  have  done;  but  we  speak  out  of  an  experi- 
ence which  tells  what  happiness  goes  with  old  ma- 
hogany. 

And  as  we  sit  here,  in  front  of  our  great  fireplace, 
with  the  yellow  light  glowing  gently  through  the 
shading  trees  and  into  our  windows,  thoughts  come 
of  our  many  adventures  in  quest  of  the  quite  Colo- 
nial. These  rooms  are  very  pleasant  to  walk 
through,  very  pleasant  to  live  in ;  and  it  is  a  delight 
to  see  and  to  use  the  graceful,  charming  old-furniture 
triumphs  of  the  past  with  which  we  have  furnished 
them. 

Old  friends,  old  flowers,  old  furniture — always 
the  same  delight  and  charm.  It  is  not  that  we  have 
had  any  unusual  success  as  gatherers  of  the  old;  it  is 
not  that  our  specimens  would  be  considered  first 
prizes  in  the  great  collections.  But  that  is  precisely 
the  point!  We  are  not  telling  how  to  form  the 
great  collections.  We  are  but  telling  how  any  one 
may  go  forth  and,  with  perseverance  and  enthusiasm, 
find  delightful  old  bits  of  mahogany  and  walnut  and 


THE  END  OF  IT  ALL 

china  and  brass  and  bear  them  home 'in  triumph. 
And  into  life  there  comes  a  new  and  delightful  savor, 
with  this  smack  of  age  and  this  relish  of  the  saltness 
of  time. 


1417] 


INDEX 


Acanthus  carving,  40,  178 

Adam,  a  style  in  furniture,  39 

Adaptations,  American,   183 

Advertisement  in  county  pa- 
pers for  furniture,  199 

Andirons,  brass,  behind  a  fire- 
board,  406;  with  melting 
solder,  389;  traded  for  a 
hammock,  16,  20;  with 
wasps  in  them,  16,  308 
iron,  found  in  a  cellar,  138; 
with  faceted  knobs,  316 

Antiques,  fashions  in,  167 ; 
shops  for,  142-147,  150, 
152,  170,  230 

Armoires,  Dutch,  162 ;  at  an 
auction,  109;  in  Georgia, 
130 

Attics  of  old  houses,  22,  125, 
129,  404 

Auctions,  in  the  country,  100- 
117;  on  Long  Island,  141 

Austrian,  the  old,  143 

Bandboxes,  old  flowered,   129, 

361 

Bandy-leg,  256.     See  Cabriole 
Bandy-legged  table  from 

Maryland,  240 
Banister-back  chairs,   129,   131, 

288,  295 

Banisters,  broken,  77 
Banjo  clocks,  212 
Barn,  contents  of  a  Maryland, 

236 

Baskets,  old  makers  of,  211 
Beaufaits,  bo-fats,  buffets,  193, 

367 
Beds,     four-poster,     125,     356, 


357;      Heppelwhite,      125; 
Wasl 


Washington's,  125,  360, 387 
Beehive  window,  58 


Belleek,  170 

Bellows  for  ten  cents,  in,  117 

Bethlehem,    Pennsylvania,    298 

Blennerhassett  Island,  18 

"Block-front"  drawers,  217 

Boathouse,  172 

"Bonnet-top,"   23,  94,  236;  on 

Penn's  desk,  397 
Book-case,  an  Empire,  282 
Boulle,  46,  234 
Bowl  and  pitcher  in  blue,  361, 

369 

Brass,   andirons.     See  And- 
irons 

candelabra     from     meeting- 
house, 306 

candlesticks,  first  pair,  4,  5 ; 
fluted,    from    Delaware,    5, 
200 ;  in  a  pickle  barrel,  196 
fenders,  148,  346 
handles,  differences  in,  225; 
oval,  113;  rosette,  155,  242, 
282;  willow,  217 
kettles,  3,  81,  162 
knobs,  76 
knockers,  76,  80,  151,  158, 

160,  164 

movements  in  clocks,  27 
shovel  and  handle,  275 
tips  on  carved  feet,  43 
tongs,  158 

Broken-arch,  23,  94,  236,  397 
Buff  and  white  paint,  65 
Burr,  Aaron,  18,  62,  366,  367 

Cabinet-makers,  the  great,  30- 
34;  the  man  from  Mainz, 
263 ;  old  and  new  in  Mary- 
land, 230-244 

Cabriole  legs,  26,  29,  36,  69,  344 
Candelabra  from  old  meeting- 
house, 306 


[419] 


INDEX 


v 


Candle-brackets,  makeshift, 

37i 

Candlesticks,  first  pair,  4,  5; 
fluted  from  Delaware,  5, 
200;  from  navy,  5,  323; 
page  of,  5;  in  a  pickle 
barrel,  196;  of  Sheffield 
plate,  351 ;  Sheffield  plate, 
mended,  272 

Canework,  Empire,  41 ;  seven- 
teenth century,  38,  69 

Canopy  on  four-poster,  356 

Canton  china,  at  a  sale,  106 ;  in 
old  house,  157 

Cement   for   filling  holes   in 
wood,  272 

Census  of  furniture  in  a  vil- 
lage, 154 

Chair-backs,  29,  32-45;  Dutch, 

69 

Chairs,  banister-back,  129,  131, 
288,  295 

Chippendale,  the  structure  or 
design  of,  26,  29,  32,  35,  344- 
347;  at  a  country  auction, 
1 06;  in  old  house,  157; 
proportions  of,  344;  re- 
paired, 271 ;  reproduced, 
382 ;  Anthony  Wayne's, 
344-348 

Empire,  42-44 

Heppelwhite,  35,  38;  a  fire- 
side, 256-262 

rocking,  8,  21,  330 

seventeenth  century,  69 

Shaker,  8,  21 

Sheraton,  33-36 ;  "Fancy," 
109,  124;  eight  from  Dela- 
ware, 199;  Gothic,  349 

slat-back,  97,  161,  288 

Washington's,  45,  186 

Windsor,  10,  129,  131,  220, 
349;  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence written  in  a, 
45 ;  extension-back,  267, 
330;  a  favorite  of  George 
I,  ts;  in  Great  Britain, 
267 ;  masqueraded  as 


mahogany,    390;    page   of, 

267;  in  Philadelphia,  169; 

structure  of,  349 ;  thirty  on 

Washington's  piazza,  45 
Chaise-longue,  193 
Chandelier,  "old,  85 
Chest-on-chest,      differentiated 

from    high-boy,    171,    173; 

one    from    Massachusetts, 

217 
Chests,   Dutch,  inlaid  and 

leather,  98 
China,  old,  299,  301 ;  "sprigged," 

.  133 

Chintz,  356 

Chippendale  as  a  cabinet- 
maker, 32 

Chippendale,  chairs.  See  Chairs. 
A  fine  table,  165;  a  secre- 
tary, 327;  settee  and 
double-chair,  205,  338; 
sofa,  338;  a  typical  Chip- 
pendale leg,  26;  his  ideas 
on  a  valance,  127;  on  up- 
holstering, 347 

Cibber,  Colley,  67,  68 

Claw-and-ball,  26,  39,  46 

Claw-foot,  when  used,  26,  40; 
finding  claw-foot  sofas, 
177,  180,  409,  412 

Clocks,  banjo,  212;  Crom- 
well's, 396;  Empire,  350; 
grandfather's,  95 ;  unused 
in  a  garret,  22 ;  on  a  wood- 
pile, 128;  with  wooden- 
works,  94,  95 

Collections,  historical,  47. 395,397 

"Colonial,"  the  meaning  of  the 
term,  14 

Connecticut,  furniture  in,  203- 
214;  county  fairs  in,  214 

Console,  Empire,  303 

Copper  in  Russian  shops,  395 

Corner-cupboards,  found  in 
Boston,  223;  in  old  house, 
48;  in  Maryland,  236,  246; 
in  the  South,  193 ;  from 
Bethlehem,  299 


[420] 


INDEX 


Cornice,  a  fine  old  design,  335 

Couch-chairs,  193 

Counterpanes  made  in  Con- 
necticut, 211 

Coverlets,  blue,  136,  157;  art 
of  making,  202;  used  as 
hangings,  306 

Crane,  hanging  a,  317 

"Cunners,"  on  the  Eastern 
Shore,  247 

Curtains,  old  way  of  hanging, 
316 

Dealers  in  antiques,  the  Aus- 
trian, 143 ;  on  Long  Island, 
147 ;  in  Maryland,  230 ; 
near  the  Kill  van  Kull, 
150;  upon  the  Delaware, 
170;  itinerant,  137,  151 

Delaware,  furniture  in,  196-201 

Dents,  how  to  raise,  280 

Designs  in  furniture,  30-46 

Desks,  Chippendale,  327 ;  Sher- 
aton, 113;  of  William 
Penn,  396 

Dials  of  clocks,  23 

Dining-table,  Sheraton,  303 ;  a 
set  of,  403 

Dinner-wagons,  194 

Double-chair,  193,  205 

Dull  surface  in  French  polish- 
ing, 291 

Dutch,  as  a  term  in  furniture, 
45,  46,  69 

Dutch,  armoire,  162 ;  influence 
on  chair-backs,  69,  106; 
origin  of  claw-and-ball 
feet,  46 ;  marquetry,  391 ; 
old  silver,  392;  wardrobe, 
159 

Eagle,  a  national  emblem,  24, 

90 

Eastern  Shore,  the,  227-250 
Egg,  the,  as  a  design,  46 
Egypt,  its  influence  on   furni- 
ture, 40 ;  origin  of  sphinx 
and  winged  foot,  40 


Empire,  a  classification  in  fur- 
niture, 40 

Empire,  book-case,  282;  chairs, 
41,  44;  clock,  350;  console, 
383;  mantel  mirror,  333, 
351;  mirrors,  86,  87;  side- 
boards, offered  for  new 
shelves,  135 ;  in  Maryland, 
230-233;  with  mirror,  193; 
in  village  of  furniture 
census,  158,  231 ;  sofa,  177, 
179,  338,  409,  412;  typical 
winged-claw  foot,  26 

Fakes,  how  to  recognize  and 
avoid,  380-398 

"Fancy"  chairs  of  Sheraton, 
109,  124 

Farmington   valley,   empty 
houses  in,  63 

Fashions  in  antiques,  167 

Fenders,  brass,  148,  345 

Firedogs,  iron,  316.  See  And- 
irons 

Fireplace,  bricking  up  of  old, 
75 ;  of  the  inn,  68,  315-321 ; 
makeshift,  371-376;  six- 
teen in  one  house,  61 

Firescreen,  old,  108,  170 

Fireside  chair  bought  as  a 
wreck,  256-262 

Flute,  a,  and  its  old  player, 
165 

Four-poster,  adapting  a,  126- 
127,  357-36o;  finding  a, 
125  ;  a  sawed-down,  253  ; 
Washington's,  125,  360,  387 

Franklins,  61,  74;  in  a  bed- 
room, 363,  365 

French,  as  a  term  in  furniture, 
45,  46 

French  polishing,  277-297 

Furniture,  American,  183;  cen- 
sus in  a  village,  154-161 ; 
difference  in  North  and 
South,  184;  French,  46; 
hand-made,  12 ;  imported, 
183-185,  347 


'[421] 


INDEX 


Garrets  of  old  houses,  22,  125, 

129,  404 
Georgian,  house,  60-62;  silver 

by  weight,  400 
Germantown,  old  furniture  in, 

168 
Ghosts  in  the  old  stone  house, 

52 
Gilding  an  old  mirror  frame, 

352 

Griffin,  in  carving,  40 
Guest  room,  the,  354-366 

Hall,  of  inn,  59,  62,  82-85; 
brick-paved,  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, 409 

Handles,  brass,  differences  in, 
225;  oval,  113;  rosette, 
155,  242,  282;  willow,  217 

Hand-made  coverlets,  306 ; 
furniture,  12;  rugs,  82,  112 

Harpsichord,  343 

Heart-shaped  chair-backs,  36, 
38 

Hearth,  mending  the,  72 

Helmet  coal-scuttle,  144 

Heppelwhite  as  a  cabinet- 
maker, 35,  344 

Heppelwhite,  bed,  125;  chairs, 
36,  38;  fireside  chair,  256- 
262;  chair  in  old  house, 
165;  four-poster,  125,  356, 
357;  low-boy,  260,  270; 
sideboard,  197;  in  Mary- 
land, 228;  tables,  91,  196, 
197,  393  5  typical  leg,  26 

Heraldry,  bucolic,  24 

High-boy,  173,  181 ;  from  Con- 
necticut, 217;  in  a  barn, 
171 

Houses,  old,  for  rent,  118,  245, 
248-250 

Industries,  cottage,  212-214 
Inkstains,  how  to  remove  from 

wood,  293 ;  as  a  supposed 

proof  of  age,  386 


Inlay,  39,  46;  modern,  on  old 
pieces,  240-243 

Inn,  the  old,  58-80;  in  Mary- 
land, 246-247;  at  King's 
Mountain,  202 

Irving,  Washington,  65,  92 

Jacobean,  as  a  term  in  furni- 
ture, 40 

Jefferson, his  pictures,  91 ;  wrote 
in  a  Windsor  chair,  45 

Kentucky,  driving  in,  134 
Kettle,       ebony-handled,       3 ; 

gipsy,  162 ;  large  brass,  162 
Kettle-stand  traded  for  a  hen, 

307,  393 

Kitchen  of  inn.  68 
Knife-boxes,  189 
Knobs,  brass,  for  door,  76 
Knockers,  brass,  76,  80,  151 ;  in 

one  village,  160;  eagle,  on 

old  house  door,  164;  iron, 

from  London,  98 

Ladles,  silver  toddy,  129 

Lafayette  in  western  New 
York,  135 

Lantern  in  hall,  164 

Lion,  in  carving,  40 

Long  Island,  clock  from,  23; 
auctions  on,  143;  old 
dealer  on,  144 

Louis  Quatorze,  Quinze,  and 
Seize,  styles  in  furniture, 
46 

Low-boy,  Heppelwhite,  201, 
260,  270;  of  1750,  383 

Lowestoft,  in  a  village  cup- 
board, 159,  301 ;  in  a 
Massachusetts  town,  219 

Lustre,   copper,   pitcher,    194 

Lye,  action  of,  on  wood,  293 

Machine-made  furniture,  47 
Mahogany,   14;  kinds  of,  339; 

when  first  used,  40 ;  weight 

of,  165 


[422] 


INDEX 


Makeshifts,  370-379 

Mantel,  French  idea  of  fur- 
nishing a,  350 

Market,  a  Maryland,  229 

Marquetry,  Dutch,  391 

Maryland,  old  furniture  in, 
227-251 

Massachusetts,  old  furniture 
in,  214-224 

Mirrors,  Constitution,  90 ;  Em- 
pire, 86,  87 ;  Empire  man- 
tel, 351 ;  English  and  Ve- 
netian, 85 ;  frame  fitted  to 
uprights,  274,  276 ;  used  as 
cupboard  door,  140;  with 
missing  urn,  390 

Misdating  furniture,  387,  397 

Miser  of  old  furniture,  149 

Moon,  phases  of  the,  94 

Music-stand,  old,  165 

Napoleon   I,    furniture   of   his 

time,    40,    41.      Also    see 

Empire 
Negroes,  old   furniture  now 

owned  by,  188 
New  Orleans,  193;  silver 

shipped  to,  401 
New  York,  old  furniture  in, 

141-166 
Niagara  Falls  on  old  blue  bowl 

and  pitcher,  361 

Oak,  deceit  in,  391 
Ormolu,  43 

Oval  chair-backs,  36,  38 
Ovens,  old  brick,  68 

Pembroke  tables,  44,  238,  244 
Pendulums,  first  use  of,  95,  96 ; 

introduction    of    long^  and 

short,  396 
Pennsylvania,  old  furniture  in, 

176 
Pewter,  platter,  404;  tankards, 

321 
Philadelphia,  old  furniture  in, 

167-176 


Pictures,  old-time,  91 ;  how  to 

hang,  333 

Pilasters,  fluted,  61,  82 
Pineapple  tops  in  carving,  40 
Pitcher,  a  lustre,   194;  pitcher 

and  bowl  in  blue,  361 
Polishing  of  wood,  277-297 
Portico  of  inn,  58,  66;  of  old 

house,  118 

Prints,  of  1812, 133 ;  in  hall,  92 ; 
Napoleon,  92;  behind  oleo- 
graph, 407 

Quaker  home,  176 

Queen  Anne;  a  design  of  her 

period,  23 
Quilts  in  patchwork  at  King's 

Mountain,  202 

"Rays  of  the  Sun,"  carved,  217 
Rector  with  a  handsaw,  203 
Reeding  on  Sheraton  legs,  26,  39 
Rocking-chairs,  8,  21,  330 
Rope,  twisted,  as  a  design,  40 ; 

on  table,  237 

Rugs,    braided,    fur,    Oriental, 
of  rag,  woven,  82,  212,  365 
Rush  seats,  212,  296 
Repairing    Chippendale    chair, 
271 ;     claw-and-ball     table, 
269 ;     Heppelwhite     chair, 
256-262 ;  Heppelwhite  low- 
boy,   270;    how    to    repair 
and  polish  at  home,  277-297 
Reproductions,   frequent   fail- 
ures in,  254 

Salver,  silver,  in  a  cellar  bin, 

408 

Samovars,  143 
San   Domingo  mahogany,  339. 

See  Mahogany 
'Secretary,  slant-top,  325,  327. 

See  Desks 
Sets  of  dining  tables,  160,  303, 

309,  403 
Settees,  157,  205,  338 


'[423] 


INDEX 


Settle  sawed  up  for  memen- 
toes, 204 

Seventeenth  century  furniture, 
40,  69 

Shakers,  the,  4;  chair  from 
the,  8,  21 

Sheffield  plating,  process  of, 

Shell  ornamentation,  35,  205, 
224 

Sheraton  as  a  designer  and 
cabinet-maker,  33,  36,  39 

Sheraton  chairs,  33, 36;  "Fancy," 
109,  124;  from  Delaware, 
199;  desk,  113;  dining 
table,  303;  sideboard,  35, 
189,  191 ;  sofa,  149 ;  small 
oval  table,  408;  tea-board, 
266,  314;  typical  leg,  26 

Shield,  as  a  design  for  chair- 
backs,  36,  38 

Shops,  antique ;  the  old  Aus- 
trian's, 143 ;  on  Long 
Island,  147 ;  in  Maryland, 
230;  near  the  Kill  van 
Kull,  150;  on  the  Dela- 
ware, 170;  "tea  and  an- 
tiques," 146,  152;  "shabby 
shops,"  143,  146 

Shovel,  brass,  275 

Sideboards,  Empire,  44;  in 
Maryland,  230-233 ;  with 
mirror,  193;  Heppelwhite, 
35,  3.6,  39;  in  Maryland, 
228 ;  in  Virginia,  197 ;  mis- 
use of  Chippendale's  name 
for,  35;  origin  of,  35; 
Sheraton,  35,  189,  193; 
taste  for,  43 

Sign-post  of  inn,  49,  58 

Silver,  Dutch,  392;  Georgian, 
400 

Slat-back  chairs,  97.  288,  295 

Slats  and  splats  differentiated, 
278 

Snake-foot,  26,  44,  343,  393 

Sofa,  Empire,  40-44,  157;  find- 
ing claw-footed,  177-180, 


338,    409,    412;    a    sawed- 
down,  128;  Sheraton,  149 

Solder  in  old  andirons,  389 

Spanish,  as  a  term  in  furniture, 
.45,  46 

Sphinx,  as  a  design  in  furni- 
ture, 40;  in  brass,  350 

Spinning-wheels,  55 

Splats  and  slats  differentiated, 
278 

Splats  in  Chippendale  chairs, 
32,  35,  344,  348;  in  Wind- 
sors, 267,  329;  comparison 
of,  224 

"Splint-bottom  school  of  an- 
tiques," 134 

Spoons,  "rat-tail,"  57 

"Sprigged"  china  in  farm- 
house, 133 

Structure  of  old  chair,  262 

Styles  in  furniture,  29-42 

Sun-dial,  331,  332 

Tables,  bandy-leg,  240-243 ; 
Chippendale,  165,  240,  242 ; 
dressing,  360,  378;  Em- 
pire, 155,  237,  401 ;  Heppel- 
white, 91,  196,  197,  393; 
page  of  little,  393;  page  of 
mahogany,  242 ;  Pembroke, 
44,  238,  244;  repair  of 
claw-and-ball,  269 ;  Sher- 
aton dining,  303 ;  small, 
oval,  408;  in  old  house, 
165 ;  tilting  or  tipping, 
238,  242 ;  from  a  cabin, 
188;  tea,  343;  "with  claws 
and  wings"  from  a  janitor, 
242,  401 ;  tracing  ancestral, 
403 ;  work,  155,  237,  242,  393 

Tap-room  of  inn,  61,  73 

"Tea  and  antiques,"  146,  152 

Tea-boards,  311,  314;  repair  of, 
266;  Franklin's  letter  about, 
266 ;  Wedgwood's  use  of ,  31 1 

Tempera  on  walls,  68 

Tidewater  inlets,  246 

Toby,  a,  322 


[424] 


INDEX 


Tongs,  brass,  158 
Tortoise-shell  inlay,  46 
Trivets,  308 
Tureen,  silver,  used  as  a  lamp, 

273 

Twisted-rope  carving,  40;  on 
work-table,  237 

Undertakers  as  old  furniture 
dealers,  233,  412 

Upholstering,  on  a  Chippendale 
chair,  347;  on  a  Heppel- 
white  chair,  256-262 

Upholstery,  origin  of,  224 

Valance,  Chippendale's  ideas 
on,  127 

Veneer,  a  chip  in,  237;  a  prej- 
udice against,  234;  polish- 
ing, 284 ;  mending,  295 ;  on 
pillars,  391 

Village,  a  restful,  58;  of  furni- 
ture census,  154;  one 
bought  outright,  63 

Virginia,  old  furniture  in,  183- 
196;  ^  Heppelwhite  furni- 
ture in,  197 

"Wag-at-the-wall"  clocks,  96 
Wainscoting  in  old  houses,  40, 
157,  245,  250 


Wall-paper,  on  bedroom,  365; 

for  old  houses,  76 ;  making 

it  stick  on  old  walls,  72 ; 

on   room    in   yellow,   336; 

restoring  an  old,  366 
Warp,  straightening  a,  in  wood, 

265 
Washington,  at  an  auction,  101 ; 

his     bed,     125 ;     in     Con- 
necticut, 209 ;  his  chairs  at 

Mt.  Vernon,  186 ;  his  porch 

chairs,  45 

Washstand  to  hold  a  bowl,  361 
Wax,  bleaching,  in  Connecticut, 

213 
Wayne,  the  chair  of  Anthony, 

344-348 
Weaving,  at  Mt.  Vernon,  365; 

rag  rugs,  112,  212 
Web-foot,  the,  26,  36,  181 
Western  Reserve,  a  garret  in 

the,  22;  clock  unused,  23; 

high-boy  in,  217 
Whitewash,  covering  old,  with 

paper,  72 

Window,  beehive,  58 
Windsor  chairs.    See  Chairs 
Wooden-works  in  clocks,  27-31 
Worm-holes  in  old  wood,  385 
Wrecks,  buying  apparent,  252- 

276 


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